Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Again I’d like to welcome Nicole Latour-Theede to the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Finance. Sorry, the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

This past summer the Minister and I toured the Sahtu region and we met with the members of the communities of the Sahtu. We heard from the communities in terms of support for the hunters, the trappers, the harvesters on the land and that the high cost of living in the Sahtu is something that is

quite a concern for us. More importantly, the high cost of pursuing their traditional activities in terms of eating wild food from the land.

I want to ask the Minister, in these types of discussions we have with our people, what type of support will the Minister look at to support our traditional activities to support our people.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There currently exists a selection of programs that support the traditional activities on the land that are housed in ITI and MACA. As well, one of the things we’re looking at in terms of new support would be through the business planning process coming up. We’re looking at the expansion of the funding program that now assists community hunts.

In terms of one of the programs the Minister talked about, the Community Harvesting Assistance Program to support traditional hunts, I know from the reports I’ve been getting from the Sahtu in the last month that there’s been a huge increase in interest of hunters going out and pursuing this activity with their children and families. As you know, there’s a high number of families with less than $30,000 of income.

I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the high cost of living and the uniqueness of dealing with the situation in the Sahtu, is this type of funding going to be looked at in terms of the high cost of living in areas and allocating dollars to communities that do have higher costs to pursue the harvesting activities.

This I know is an issue of great concern to many of the members of the communities outside of Yellowknife where harvesting and hunting are significant activities. As the Member is aware, discussions have been held in relation to the business plans and Strategic Initiatives committees and work that’s being done. The intent is, having travelled with the Member to the communities in his riding where we heard in almost every community about as we look to live off the land and we look for other opportunities other than may be available through some of the caribou herds that are in decline, the need for assistance. It’s on that basis that we’ve had those discussions and we want to come forward with some options for expanding the funding for the CHAP funding.

Can the Minister inform the House as to when some of these changes could come to light in terms of sharing the CHAP funding program with the communities?

Being part of the business planning process, it has been discussed. It has been built into the main estimates.

The House will be gathering for its final major budget session in late January or February, going into March, and that’s when the matter will be decided by the House.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of the outline that the Minister has informed the House, how soon after that discussion will we know if it’s a positive discussion or positive outcome that the communities will know that they will be eligible for some of these support dollars that they desperately need to continue on with the harvesting of their traditional foods?

Mr. Speaker, the business we do in the south is tied to, of course, the fiscal year which ends March 31st and starts

April 1st for the new budget. The budget for the

House will be passed and approved and we will start the flow April 1, 2011.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of the Power Corporation. In my Member’s statement today, the community of Ulukhaktok on October 4th and 5th had 20

households with no power, including the airport. Nunakput at this time of the year on the coastline communities, there is fog and freezing rain. I am just wondering if the Minister could speak to the Power Corporation to see if we could send crews into the communities that they represent to clear the ice off of the lines. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for that question on the Power Corporation. It was unfortunate the incidents that occurred there, and the power being out for as long as it was and the weather affecting the crews from getting into that community. We must, as the Member has stated, ensure that the community pull together in a very solid way, and a successful way, and ensuring people manage to get power to their homes and keep their homes heated. We thank the community for pulling together on that.

The Power Corporation, on the issue of the outages that have occurred both in Ulukhaktok and in Inuvik, for example, I have spoken to the board and they are getting me some additional information as well as looking at the recruitment process to come up with some plans on their maintenance structures. I will have to talk to them about that as they go forward. Thank you.

I want to thank the Minister for that reply. I am just wondering if we could set up a backup system for each community on the coast, and in Inuvik as well, or making sure that when the power goes out in the middle of winter when it is 40 below and you have a blizzard, it is usually for three days. We have some sort of system in there that we could... What could you do to make it happen in regard to having a safe system that we could rely on?

Mr. Speaker, all the work that the Power Corporation does in trying to provide a reliable service to the communities does include a level of redundancy, and that is in the generators, or Gen Set as we call them in the communities, so that there is backup.

The problem becomes more so an issue when we talk about our lines and transformers and so on. They have equipment that they could replace, but it is a matter of getting people into our most remote communities when something does occur like that and we try to marshal the crews to get out as soon as weather permits in some cases to, in fact, restore that power. We do have redundancy. The issue becomes, for example, around power lines, transformers, those areas where there are some problems that do occur. I will get additional information on the level of redundancy and the cost of that as well. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, for the maintenance program in regards to the low outlying communities, is there one in place for the summer months or for the communities?

Mr. Speaker, I need some clarification on that. Is there a backup system in place over the summer months? We do have, for example, Gen Sets that are available and we move them in from time to time where they are needed in our communities where there are major outages and major breakdowns. Again, that is marshalled up at the time when we have them set up so that we can move them throughout the Territory. Again, for more specific on what area of backup the Member is looking for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The maintenance program that I am referring to is just like going in there in the communities in the summer making sure the lines are connected properly to the poles, making sure they are grounded out in high wind areas, and seeing if we could also get local qualified people in the communities that represent the Power Corporation being able to fix these situations that we know that happen periodically in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I will get the maintenance schedule for our communities and provide that to Members. I know in our work we do, when we are replacing some capital components, that they do have a schedule for our communities. I will get that information for Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.