I’m not quite sure what

unallocated money the Member is referring to. The unallocated money I am referring to is the money that is earmarked for the community of Wrigley and it’s almost $1.3 million that they would be able to use for their infrastructure planning. If a pool is included in that planning, that would be their decision. Our department would be there to assist them in putting a capital plan together.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The

honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As of

today there are no gold standard carbon offsetting programs in Canada where people can personally contribute to help offset or become carbon neutral. If carbon offsetting programs can happen in India, Madagascar and Indonesia, why can’t they happen here in the North? My questions are directed to the Minister of Environment and my question would be: Would he be willing to look into developing a carbon neutral, a carbon offset gold program here in the Northwest Territories so that we can direct that type of influence and potential resource money into developing our great hydro system here in the North?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The

honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you,

Mr. Speaker. Of course I’m interested to look into that issue and get a good base of information. In fact, Minister Bob McLeod and I are heading down to Banff on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to a very important gathering called The Search for Canada-U.S. Climate Change Accord: The Road to Copenhagen and Beyond. One of the working sessions is called Pricing Carbon in a Canada-U.S. Cap and Trade System. So this is an emerging area. I acknowledge that there are other countries doing things of great interest. I will commit to get that base of information so we can have an informed discussion.

Is there willingness from this

Minister and this Department of Environment and Natural Resources to create a carbon offsetting program such as the gold standard program that I had referred to? Is there a willingness to do this?

We have a

Climate Change Committee that involves myself, Minister Michael McLeod, Members Bromley and Krutko, and I would commit to put that item on the agenda for our next meeting so that we can have some initial discussions about the issue and what potential next steps may be there.

Like the old saying goes, you can

lead, you can follow, but certainly get out of the way and make a choice. I’d certainly hope that this Minister would make the choice to lead on this one. As we know, as I’ve said a few times, and I certainly know that this Minister understands the problem that money is being directed by personal

contributions where people want to make a carbon neutral world. Why aren’t we doing this in the North to help develop our northern hydro? Is the Minister aware of what type of money could be generated in this type of project, in this type of program? Because there is no program in Canada of this type of certification that we could develop and use hydro to help offset some of our greenhouse gas emissions. Does the Minister...Is he aware of how much money could be directed to help fund things like northern hydro?

It’s a bit of a

conundrum. The Member has indicated that there is no program of this nature that exists in the country and yet he wants to ask me how much money this program would potentially save. I have acknowledged that it’s an area where we’ll look at it. We’ll find out what other countries are doing. We are looking at the whole issue of the pricing of carbon and the cap and trade. That’s a very topical issue across the land. The Americans, jurisdictions in Canada, Ontario, Manitoba have looked at it. Alberta. So there are things, areas for us to move on this. I will talk it over with my colleagues at the Climate Change Committee and we will be able to have a more informed response.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger.

Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Obviously I wasn’t referring to the programs in Canada, because there are no gold standard programs of this nature in Canada. They are throughout the world. It wouldn’t take much to figure out how much money is being diverted to these type of projects, whether they’re in Indonesia, Madagascar or, certainly, India. My last question for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources is: Is he willing to commit to developing some type of strategy in recognition of this is the wave of the future? The people want to connect and do their part for the environment by trying to be carbon neutral, by minimizing their footprint. Would he be willing to develop a strategy to work towards this type of goal so we could help benefit from this type of good will that people want to make?

We are

willing, I am willing to take this issue -- and I’ve looked across the floor at the two other members of the Climate Change Committee -- as a starting point to the Climate Change Committee. Our staff are listening as we speak. We’ll be pulling together the basic information so we can have an informed discussion about this and about how we would incorporate this into the other broad plans we have when it comes to dealing with climate change, greenhouse gases, and dealing with things like carbon offsets as the Member talks about.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The

honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today

in my Member’s statement I was speaking in support for the northern-based air carriers. I have a question for the Minister of Transportation or ITI. Will this government either review their current projects and policies and commit to changes in the negatively impacted viability of the true northern air carriers?

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The

honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker. Our policies are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Our projects and funds that are available are always earmarked to enhance and promote northern companies. If there is an area that is raising a concern for the Member I’d be pleased to look at it. I believe that our Premier earlier this year had sent out a directive to ensure that all departments are abiding by our current policies and are following the promotion of northern companies will be first and we will give priority to them.

Subcontractors are often

excluded from these policies, creating a loophole and allowing millions of dollars to leave the North. Will the government strengthen and monitor and truly enforce the current directives and policies such as the BIP, demonstrating the GNWT’s commitment to support northern-based airlines?

The issue that the

Member is raising and the concern in that area has been recently brought to our attention. It’s a difficult one for us to address. We will certainly have further discussion with the appropriate authorities within our government to see if there’s any room for us to enter that field. Dealing with subcontractors and other agencies that are not completely government and requiring them to abide by certain policies in our government is challenging and we’d have to have further discussion and explore that.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral

questions. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My

question is for the Minister of the Department of Transportation and it’s about the Deh Cho Bridge. A perennial subject for questioning. First of all, I’d like to know if we are on budget for this project and what is the latest estimate of costs of the Deh Cho Bridge.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The

honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker. I believe there are two questions there. ---Laughter I’ll have to say, first of all, that we are probably a little behind schedule on the Deh Cho Bridge. I believe we are on budget. We are again having the contractors back at the job site and are resuming construction for this season. Last year we had targeted to have the four piers installed and the temporary bridge out by December. We didn’t have that happen until March. We’re hoping to avoid that this year.

Sounds like good news there.

We’re on budget. There are rumours out there about working relationships and onsite strife. I’m wondering how the working relationships of the partners are working out and if there are any threats to the on-budget and safe completion of this costly project.

The Member has

raised an issue that has been voiced by many people in and on the project, that there are some challenges in having everybody work together and get along. We’ve been trying to address this along with the developer, Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, and the trades. They’ve had some discussion over the last while, some opportunity to sit down and have a debrief on some of the issues that have been challenged. My understanding from the Bridge Corporation is that all the companies are back on site and they are starting, and have been starting or have started installing the temporary bridge as of last weekend.