Shane Thompson

I'd like to thank the Premier for his answer. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the fact that the Premier encourages his colleagues to try and meet or exceed last year's numbers, however, I believe there's a better way of doing it. Mr. Speaker, would the Premier please direct his colleagues to add summer employment opportunities for students as part of the 2017-2018 business plan?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank my colleagues. Out of these applications, 306 students were hired by the government. This sounds like a great number and it is; however, the previous year we had more summer students being employed by the government.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister spoke about the Premier and former Minister of Human Resources encouraging all the departments to see how we can better utilize our summer students. I think this is a great step, however we need to do more. This includes having the departments identifying the number of positions within their business plans and not rely...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, just to clarify I've heard two different answers has a decision been made how we're proceeding, or are they waiting for that meeting to make that final decisions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess my struggle or I'm trying to figure out and the community's trying to figure out how we're going to proceed with this. Has the department been working with the community to see if they're going to build and rent back, or is the department going to do a stick built, or are they going to bring in a modular unit? We need to get that clarified. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the Minister for that answer, and it's actually great to hear that the corporation is working with other departments on that and I think it's a good idea in working with the communities and moving forward.

The Minister actually talked about, you know, Colville Lake and spending $2.7 million, if I'm correct, installing batteries to make sure the solar panels hooked in there. Will the Minister look at the other smaller communities south to see if they can actually do that to make it more efficient for a community? Another pilot project, I would love to have it in my riding, but if we...

I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess I'm looking at when they develop this strategy, which we haven't seen yet, has the corporation actually worked with the communities to develop specifically their own strategic plans to help reduce the cost of electricity? So can the Minister please advise this House, if the corporation has worked with the communities to develop their strategy as part of their strategy, or is it the strategy for the whole NWT's generic picture?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his answer. When he talks about this 20 per cent for solar energy, is that just the cap for solar energy or is it for geothermal, wind, hydro or whatever the community is able to generate electricity? So could the Minister please explain that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, during the presentation this week we heard from the Power Corporation and Colville Lake was promoted as, you know, a good model out there and we're leading the world at it.

So, Mr. Speaker, is the corporation willing to work with the smaller communities to increase this so that -- or come up with the strategies that they can increase this strategy?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to speak about what the community of Jean Marie First Nations has done recently. This small community has really taken the initiative to become more energy efficient. The community has constructed a solar panel installation at the water treatment plant. This solar panel installation will generate approximately six kilowatt hours, which will offset 15 per cent of the plant's power consumption.

Mr. Speaker, the community was very excited about installing new solar panels to provide power to the water treatment plant. During the installation, the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Standing Committee on Social Development concluded its review of Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Vital Statistics on October 25, 2016. In addition to soliciting written submissions, the committee had a public hearing at the Legislative Assembly building here in Yellowknife. The committee was pleased to receive a written submission from Dene Nahjo and to hear from members of the public who addressed the committee during the public hearing. Members, I also thank Shene Catholique-Valpy speaking as an individual, Coleen Canney and Teale MacIntosh from the Rainbow...