Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister and deputy minister and Mr. Dalley for walking us through the business plans. I have got a great deal of faith in the job Mr. Bohnet and the Minister are doing in the department of ENR. I think both of them bring a lot to the table. I know Mr. Dalley serves in both capacities with ITI and ENR and is new to the job, so I look forward to working with him in the future. Just a few comments, and like I said, I think the department is headed in the right direction. Many Members have already covered off a lot of the issues I was going to cover, so I will just highlight a few things that are of interest to me.
I think, and this crosses a few departments, but $2.5 million that we are looking at spending this year on the Taltson expansion...Given the current economic downturn, it would make more sense to me if we took that $2.5 million and spent it in Whati and Lutselk’e and got those mini-hydro systems up and running sooner rather than later. I think we spent a lot of time studying and analyzing and, you know, it’s time and I am glad to see those wind turbines going into Tuktoyaktuk, but we need to get more alternative energy devices and infrastructure on the ground and in communities where they can make a difference. That $2.5 million that we are looking at spending on the Taltson expansion -- and I am still a big fan of the Taltson River Expansion -- however, I just don’t know who is going to sign on to a power purchase agreement, especially the mines north of the city, when they are laying folks off, they are going through some tough times themselves and the market for diamonds worldwide is at an all time low, so that is going to be problematic. So I would suggest that we may have a better use for that $2.5 million.
I don’t have quite the disdain for plastic bags as Ms. Bisaro has, but I put them to good use at my house. I am not looking forward to paying 25 cents for them like the next guy, but I do, you know, if people aren’t going to use plastic bags for their garbage at home or for their litter box for the cat or for whatever purpose that they do end up using them for, they are going use plastics of other kinds, from Glad and those cat box liners and things like that, so I am not sure. I know that what we are trying to do is we are trying to get plastic bags out of the waste stream, and I can appreciate that. This item,
though, we never had a discussion on the charge of 25 cents in committee. It was something that was sprung on us during the budget address. That was really, I believe, the first time I heard about a 25 cent charge going onto plastic bags. You know, if you look around the world in other jurisdictions, I think they charge five cents or 10 cents. I am not sure where they came up with 25 cents for a plastic bag, but anyway it is something I can, I guess, buy into.
If people are going to need to carry the multi-use bag around with them to the grocery store, then that is what people are going to have to do. I am interested, when we get to the page by page, I am interested in knowing -- we are going to distribute these types of enviro-friendly bags in communities across the Northwest Territories -- in finding out how much that is going to cost, and I will have some questions in that area as well.
Like Ms. Bisaro, I have some concerns on the impact on quotas for outfitters in terms of the barren ground caribou and where we are headed with that, but I will save those questions for the detail, Mr. Chairman.
I think for me the bottom line is the department is in good hands and it is being managed quite well. Thank you.