We have a lot of students from the North who do attend post-secondary facilities in Alberta. It seems to almost be a destination of choice. I don’t have any statistics to bear that out. Where a constituent or resident can prove a cost savings to the government, the cost to get from Grande Prairie to Edmonton to see a specialist is a lot less than getting from Hay River to Edmonton. Where it is an absolute, undeniable, proven case of where it would cost less to waive the policy about it having to originate in the Northwest Territories, would this not be something that the Minister could simply and quickly and expeditiously put into place?

Yes, I would be interested in looking at that I will get back to the Member quickly.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. They are in regard to the agreement we have on the gas tax. In the agreement it stipulates that by March 31st the

communities have to complete their community energy plans and their integrated community sustainability plans. Yet, from the information that I have, only 10 communities have completed their plans, leaving 23 communities to complete the work before March 31st . It’s only a month and a half

away.

In the information that’s been provided it states that some communities are in the process of a meeting with council at the middle of March. This is pretty close to the deadline. In other cases they are still in the process of discussions with a consultant.

I’d like to ask the Minister what happens to those communities that do not complete their commitments under the Gas Tax Agreement and what is the penalty for not completing those reports by March 31st .

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are 10 that are completed, 13 bringing them to their councils for approval in February, and the balance -- I believe it’s 13 and 10, I may have the numbers backwards -- will have them to their councils for approval in March. We anticipate that all communities will meet the deadline. In the event that they don’t, their funds will be held back until they have their plans completed and approved.

As we all know, some communities are having difficulties with deficits or lack of core staff to ensure they have capacity to do the work to complete these reviews. I’d like to ask the Minister what other resources are there for communities that do not have the capacity in SAOs or people in the communities who can actually physically do the work. Is the government willing to put more resources into those communities so that we can try to meet the deadline of March 31st ?

MACA held five regional workshops to help community governments with their plans. They brought in SAOs, two elected officials from each community to take part in the workshops. As well, some of the communities have gone to the private sector to help with their sustainability plans. We will continue to track those communities that may be a little behind, but we still anticipate that all communities are going to be completed by the March 31st deadline.

Could the Minister give us the statistics on the community energy plans and what communities have completed their community energy plans and which ones haven’t? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, well, obviously, there are 10 of them that have completed all four. There are four components to the community sustainability plan and all of the 10 completed have obviously done all of them. I don’t have the exact numbers with me. I’ll get the numbers and I’ll provide them to the Member. But if the 13 that are going to council for approval in February, then we would assume that they have their energy plans done. Then there are 10 that are going to their councils for approval in March. As for exact numbers as to how many have been completed to date, I will get that information and I’ll pass it on to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe this is the perfect opportunity for this government to really put some capital infrastructure in the communities, especially for the smaller communities where they have higher energy costs and higher operating costs. I believe there’s $40 million for basically looking at the green funds that we have in place. So I’d just like to ask the Minister exactly is this government going to also be looking at alternative means of energy in communities, more importantly, in regard to the capital dollars we have elsewhere to assist these communities where we realize that they have high energy costs and that basically the communities are unsustainable under the existing systems that they are using.

Mr. Speaker, we’ll continue to work with the communities in identifying their energy needs and where they can make

improvements so when the community decides what infrastructure that they’re going to build, then they’ll be able to incorporate a lot of the ideas. That’s why the Arctic Energy Alliance is playing a part in working with some of the communities in coming up with their community energy plans. So this would go a long way, and I’ve spoken to one community in particular that had some concerns about some of the energy costs and how they were doing some new work and they were going to incorporate some of the recommendations made in the energy plans. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement today I talked about payday loans and the fact that I believe the territorial consumer is being left at risk. I think that’s time for this government to take an active interest in this file and rather than wait for an accident to happen, we should take control of it through sound, reasonable regulations.

Mr. Speaker, seven out of 10 of the provinces in this Dominion of Canada have ensured that low rates exist for people who have to go to Payday Loans, and they’ve ensured that the protection of the citizens is certainly a priority.

Mr. Speaker, the last point I want to make is the federal government says, through the Criminal Code, that you cannot charge more than 60 percent on these types of loans, but the fact is even though they hide it with a cheap introduction loan, the maximum of 60 percent does not take into account the fees that are often charged with this. So I’m going to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, who’s also the Minister responsible for consumer affairs, is he willing to take a look at prescribing regulations here in the Northwest Territories that protect consumers and don’t put them at risk because of these high interest fees that are charged with the payday loans? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, MACA is working with our federal/provincial/territorial counterparts to look at issues regarding the consumer credit card market, and we’re looking at ways that we can improve our efforts to protect consumers. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in information that’s been sent to me it says basically it’s at the

discretion of the lending agency. So I’m really curious what MACA is doing as they watch this evolve. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we haven’t had any concerns brought to our attention yet by the consumers, but we do have a consumer affairs person that monitors a lot of the goings-on out there. If this continues to be a practice or something that consumers need information on or just need reassurance that they are protected, then it’s something that, as a government, we have to do. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I believe there is a firm role here for government to backstop the public to make sure that regulations and oversight exist before something goes off the rails. Mr. Speaker, it’s clear that these types of loans are given to people with low income or, certainly, to middle income Canadians and puts them in financial risk. Why is the Minister waiting for complaints in order to act rather than doing something? Mr. Speaker, the opportunity exists here. Would the Minister act and look into regulations and develop them in a fair way as seven other provinces have in this country?

Yes, we’ll look into it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister elaborate a little further, such as does he anticipate that he’ll look into this right away or is it one of those little things that will hang there and say someday we’ll take a look at it; we’re not against it, but maybe we’ll be for it? So could the Minister, sort of, elaborate a little further on his answer? Because my expectations are reasonable but certainly are there now. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we’ll look into it right away. Thank you.