Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If all three Ministers are going to be dealing with this, maybe I will send my next question to the Premier. Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if we just continue to direct it to the Minister of Finance or what. I look for direction, but I will direct it to the Minister of Finance and allow you to redirect it as appropriate. Mr. Speaker, we need to tighten our belts. That doesn’t cost money. Mr. Speaker, it has been mentioned that we use the Arctic Energy Alliance and we have been. We fund them through our programs. We can do this. I am not talking about expensive...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I won’t go to the length of yesterday’s transcripts, but I will refer to pages 2380, 2381, 2382, and 2383. I will just paraphrase to put it all together. The Minister spoke about departments consulting with RWED, the Department of Housing. He talked about on an annual basis. Some of these problems we can’t build into a budget exercise, anticipated costs, operational things are being done. We realize that there are going to be some impacts, but to mitigate them, we have to work forward at the time with real bills. Mr. Speaker, I am basically talking...

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr. Premier. I’m quite enthused by the fact that assuming that no major significant changes to the letter happens, that the letter will be going out. I am more than happy to wait for a copy of that letter after it goes out. I think that is probably reasonable. It sounds as if it’s going to be out in a timely fashion, so I think a few days, a week, is very, very reasonable for the Premier to get all updates or whatnot to address the letter.

I think my final question would be is, the Premier did allude to some type of package and whatnot, I wasn’t sure I...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have to really say thank you, Mr. Premier, I think that’s a good day for the Northwest Territories as well as a good day for the other two territories taking a serious look at this issue. I think it’s a great day. I’m excited to hear that, I guess. All I can ask at this stage, assuming that the letter is probably in draft with some confidence between the other Premiers, would the Minister be able to share a draft copy with MLAs at this time to see what you are asking to get a sense of that perspective, as well as I think you indicated or alluded to a package?...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier, the Honourable Joseph Handley.

Please provide to all Members of this House the total yearly funding contribution made to the Government of the Northwest Territories by the federal government in the last 10 years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister talking about an annual basis, a global basis, but, Mr. Speaker, this crisis wasn’t here a year ago. This is why I’m stressing that we need action today to avert the crisis of the spending we’re going to need to do and make up and borrow in the new year. Mr. Speaker, bills are doubling, oil and fuel bills are doubling. Mr. Speaker, I need some type of commitment that we will do this up front before we get the bills. We’ll turn down those lights. The Legislative Assembly glows all night long. Let’s turn those lights down. This...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his overview of an annual basis but, Mr. Speaker, I’m referring to the crisis of oil prices. We need an action plan, a new policy, that looks at everything from idling our cars and trucks, our buildings, by turning our lights off, by turning our fuel heat registers down a little bit. We’d be foolish to think that there wouldn’t be a rider on this year’s power bill due to the oil prices. What is the Minister doing to avert this potential crisis that we’ll be seeing in endless amounts of supplementary appropriation bills or special warrants to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I, too, wish to acknowledge Mr. Whitford. From my understanding, Mr. Whitford has an extra smile on today and I believe he got a special phone call, so I think this Assembly needs to recognize Mr. Whitford. He will explain the phone call later to all Members, but I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot more of him. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess then that’s fine. I must not have been able to hear it on this side of the House without my earpiece. What I will say is kudos to our Premier, because without us having a letter out there to say we want to know more, it’s difficult to make good policy. So I will lend my support to the Premier of seeking further information at this time. He can have my support on that basis, and we will proceed to the next level when we get to see the letter and we get the reaction from Ottawa on that potential briefing some day. Thank you, no question.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If the Premier could give me some indication as to when this letter may be going out, I suspect it’s probably under some quite significant scrutiny to make sure on a big issue like this that it gets written properly so the messages are clear. Would the Premier be able to indicate roughly when this letter would be going out? Because I’ll give the Premier the latitude of the assumption that if it’s going out this week, maybe next week, I am certainly satisfied to wait until the letter goes out, but if the letter is going to be sitting on his desk for another month due...