Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe I got the same phone call as the Member did this morning and I want to assure the Member that the Housing Corporation is working with the community as of a couple of hours ago. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we are running out of time here. I don’t think we can afford to have a tender go out, because whoever gets the contract has to get a permit from the Gwich’in Land and Water Board and also they have to get an access agreement from the Gwich’in. I think that with about a month left for this year’s season to haul the gravel, to get it out and get to the gravel source, that we’re running out of time. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can work along with the Minister of Housing, who is now the Minister of Public Works, and see if somehow they can connect together here and work to simplify this process and make it not so tough just to get 1,500 cubic yards into a community. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly recognize the Member’s concerns. As of a couple of hours ago we have talked to the Corporation officials and Public Works has also been able to communicate with our guys at the Housing Corporation and have decided to partner

up with the community and Public Works and all the others that are involved in the gravel haul. Providing they can still provide the allowance for us to be involved in that gravel haul, we will not go to a public tender for the Housing Corporation portion. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I think it would be great if the Minister can work with the other departments but, more importantly, work with the Members on this side of the House and keep us in the loop on how much gravel is needed in our communities so that we also can tell the contractors in the communities that this project is coming up in the next couple of years, this is how much gravel you’re going to need. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can find a way to give us that information that he receives when the departments coordinate their efforts to find what the granular needs are in all our communities so we know what’s needed and what’s out there. Thank you.

I certainly can commit to doing that. I think this issue today really points to the need to have better communications. We need all the partners involved in the gravel hauls and stockpiles to communicate better. I certainly will bring that information forward to the different departments that I represent and provide the information to the Members as we move through our strategy and identify the areas that we’re going to be doing stockpiles and work of this nature. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to address my questions to the Premier in light of the statement that he made today in regard to energy and the reviews that are currently ongoing. The Premier mentioned two reviews, the review of NTPC and a review of the ATCO proposal. My question to the Premier is whether or not either of these reviews will look at the operations of Northland Utilities Ltd. on whether it be here in Yellowknife or south of the lake. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWTPC or Power Corporation review would be specifically on the Power Corporation. There would be a comparison between how we operate under our structure and the NUL, what they go by. An actual review of NUL would not be in our work unless we decided to proceed, for example, with the ATCO proposal. Then we would have to start to

get into further work as to how they operate versus how we operate. Thank you.

I think everybody in this room as well as any residents who happen to be listening who live in Yellowknife will know that over the last several months we’ve experienced a few problems with our power bills and Northland Utilities. There are inconsistencies; there are increasing numbers. I would like to know from the Premier, for a customer like myself, who’s seen my bill change only upward over the last several months, what exists for me when I have a problem with a private industry like Northland Utilities where I believe that in this case, for instance, that my usage numbers are wrong and I’ve been overbilled? What exists for me to deal with this? Thank you.

I’d have to get some information on their operation. I’m not familiar with NUL, their billing process, complaints, customer relations. I would expect there would be a similar approach that customers of the NWT Power Corporation would have as their avenue. The only thing we find is that because this government is a shareholder, we tend to get the issues addressed right up into this level as well.

Thanks to the Premier. So I guess you’re telling me that there is no avenue of appeal to the government per se. It’s a private business and even though they are, well, they’re not a subsidiary of NTPC. Okay. So there’s no avenue. So I’d like to know from the Premier, then, whether or not he would feel there is an opportunity here for some sort of an appeal mechanism, whether it be an appeal board or an ombudsman, which has been referenced by myself earlier in the last session. Because it’s a private industry, because the client gets absolutely no help when they have difficulty, what kind of an appeal, what kind of ombudsman office might be put in place?

There is a process that would be available to a customer of NUL, because NUL, for example, go through the same process for a rate application and a change to that and they would have to apply to the PUB and there would be a process for the customers to make presentations. There would also be a process, I believe, that they could go to the PUB on their own behalf. I’d have to advise that Minister Bob McLeod is the lead on that initiative or area. For ourselves, looking at what can be done and putting in an ombudsman and so on, we’d have to have a look at a number of things that could work in this situation. What can an appeal process be when it comes to the private sector? So there’s quite a number of questions that would have to be looked at before I can make any commitment in that area, but I’m willing to sit down with the Member and have further discussions.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for that answer. I recognize that the process is to go through the Public Utilities Board, but that’s a really long process and it’s sort of a long-term solution to a problem. If my problem is that I have had my power bill jumped by $150 and I don’t have the money to pay for it right now and they’re telling me that it’s going to go up another $100 next month, that’s not a solution for me. I appreciate the Premier saying he’s willing to work through this, but I would like to, I guess, encourage both the Premier and Minister McLeod to look at some sort of an appeal mechanism for private industry where we’ve got such a difficult situation as we have with our power rates right now. Thank you. No question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will sit down with my colleague Minister Bob McLeod in the area of what’s available to the private sector customers. We’ll get that information and supply it to Members.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue my questions with the Minister of the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee, Mr. Bob McLeod. In terms of the wood pellet boilers, in the isolated communities, as the Minister knows very well, the limited transportation availability in terms of getting material up there in a more economic fashion here. Would the Minister look at initiatives generated by the Sahtu? They have very good ideas of how to reduce their costs in small communities like Colville Lake, where they should have put in a wood pellet boiler into the school. Because of the information that the Minister provided me, the small, isolated communities are being penalized for living in those communities. We seem to serve more of the larger centres where there’s easy accessibility of supplies to come. Would the Minister look at communities where they could get some additional support faced with the unique challenges to have energy initiatives be driven in their communities to lower the cost of energy?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The lead Minister on energy initiatives, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are, through ENR, in the process of developing a Biomass Strategy. We also know that almost every community up and down the valley, except for some of those communities on the Arctic Coast,

have access to biomass material. As part of developing our Biomass Strategy we will be developing a pilot project to show that it can be done in a small community whereby you can be self-sufficient using biomass material to generate electricity or energy.

I certainly hope the Sahtu community would be considered as one of the pilot projects to generate this initiative in terms of the biomass energy. Is the Minister thinking outside these larger centres where the real cost of energy is very high in the small communities such as he has mentioned in Nunakput and the Sahtu and maybe some in the other regions here? Is that something the Sahtu people can look forward to?

We are looking at one of the smaller communities. Some place in the Sahtu would be an ideal location. I’ll be consulting with my colleagues as we go forward with the development of the Biomass Strategy.

I look forward to his final decision if the Sahtu is going to be considered for the decision to go ahead with the pilot project for this initiative. I think that in terms of these other initiatives I’d like to ask the Minister if his office has been speaking to anybody in Norman Wells who has other alternatives that can reduce the cost of fossil fuels in their small communities. I know there’s one company in Norman Wells that can make a big difference. Has this department gotten in touch with this one company to see if they can do some business to reduce the cost of fossil fuel in the smaller communities?