Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are addressed to the Finance Minister and the lead Minister for the Refocusing Government committee. I’d like to ask the Minister, in the preparation of the 2010-11 budget by the Minister, what consideration was given to the coordination of energy projects and initiatives to coordinate them into one area or one body, and was that reflected in the budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee that plays a very lead role in terms of bringing together all the resources and planning functions that relate to that. Tied into that, in an advisory capacity of course, we have the Climate Change Committee. There are tie-ins with other work that’s being done in terms of electrical rate reviews and those types of things. We’ve also committed to the broad government approach to redo our Greenhouse Gas Strategy, but the central focus for government here in this Assembly has been the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee chaired by my colleague Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thanks to the Minister for that response, but I think he kind of made my point for me. We have a strategy. We have a plan. We have a committee. We don’t have one body, one organization, which takes everything that we are doing in terms of energy and puts it under one roof, which, as I said in my statement, directs the traffic. I think that’s something that’s necessary. I’d like to know from the Minister what sorts of Cabinet discussions have taken place in regard to the possibility of establishing something like an energy secretariat. Thank you.

I’ll restate my answer a little more clearly. The Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee plays that function. It’s comprised of the chair, Minister McLeod, the Premier sits on that, Minister Michael McLeod sits on it, I sit on it, and I believe Minister Robert C. McLeod sits on it as well, and we have some of the senior staff of government as we look at how do we best put into play all the resources we’ve dedicated, as well as making sure we have the appropriate planning processes to best marshal all our forces going forward. Thank you.

I accept the Minister’s response, but again, that plan, the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee does not look beyond the Government of the Northwest Territories. If we’re going to have anything that is going to get us to a good place, we need to involve all the residents of the Territories, not just this government and its employees. Again, there is no one body which is looking at all of the things that we do in terms of energy and putting it under one roof. The Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee, for instance, I don’t believe is involved in an education campaign to try and get people to turn off the lights when they leave a room.

Having said that, I’d like to ask the Minister: we have an NGO who does an awful lot of work for us, the Arctic Energy Alliance. I’d like to know from the Minister why we can’t put them to work for us, either to act as an energy secretariat or to help us

develop an NWT-wide coordinated energy plan. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that the territorial government, in fact, looks far beyond its own operations as we look at things like the Taltson hydro project to get power up in the North Slave Geological Province. We’re working with communities to help them get their community energy strategies in place. We are a major funder for the Arctic Energy Alliance, which we, I would point out, have taken from death’s door one Assembly ago and we’ve funded them to the point where now they are doing a significant amount of work with us on conservation, on advice on a lot of other energy initiatives. We have a Biomass Strategy. We’re coming forward with mini-hydro. We’re redoing our Greenhouse Gas Strategy. We’re doing an extensive amount of work as a government, both in our own operations as well trying to plan for the whole Territory, working with communities and other organizations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I have to thank the Minister for making my point for me. He said we have this, and then we have this, and then we have this, and then we have this. We need a coordinated plan. I would like to know from the Minister, if the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee is so coordinated, where is the plan on paper that I could get from the Minister and when can I have it? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, We have a number of… You can look at departmental strategic plans. You can look at the business plan. You can look at the Energy Plan that is in place along with the Greenhouse Gas Strategy, both of which are in the process of being updated to reflect the changes over the last number of years. We have, of course, the work that we’ve pulled together and offered to committee in terms of briefings on the ongoing work of the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve got some questions today for the lead Minister on the Strategic Initiatives Committee on the Cost of Living. I’d like to start off by saying, obviously, it’s an important issue to everybody across the Northwest Territories. Many of my constituents and everybody else’s constituents all face an exorbitant cost of living. I’d like to ask the

Minister what specific areas is her committee currently working on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for the Strategic Initiatives Committee on the Cost of Living, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to jog the memory of everybody here, Mr. Speaker, the Strategic Initiatives committees were set up at the beginning of this Assembly in order that our government could work across the departments to advance the priorities that were set out by the 16th Assembly. All of the work that we have been doing in these committees -- and there were five committees set up: Building Our Future, Managing This Land, Reducing the Cost of Living, Maximizing Opportunities and Refocusing Government -- had been added to the budgets that we have considered and approved, both in O and M and capital. I understand from Member Bisaro and Member Ramsay today that they would like more information on that. Last time we offered to have a briefing we were told they didn’t really like us very much and they just wanted to talk to Refocusing Government. But we will be happy, as soon as committee has time, to come and give the Members in-depth information on what we’ve been working on.

Just to give the Members a little bit of an update, much of the work of the committee has focused on reducing the cost of living in communities by investing in transportation projects, highways, airports, winter roads, investments in housing to do with the quality issues, as well as to make some changes to income support and the Power Subsidy Program. A lot of our work had to do with energy initiatives, and as Minister Miltenberger mentioned, we have agreed, between all of us, that the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee will take on the two big projects, which is the hydro and electricity review. Once that’s completed, if it gets incorporated into action, it will come back to us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’d like to ask the Minister, and that’s a good statement that she’s made today, but what specific initiatives has the Cost of Living Strategic Initiatives Committee taken to Cabinet for inclusion in the budget. She talked about a myriad of different things. Specifically, what has that committee taken to Cabinet for inclusion in this year’s budget? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’d be happy to give the Member a list of them, because we have already approved some of them in our capital project last year, and we are into year two and three of those projects. Those are investments in winter roads in the Sahtu area, extending the runway at some of the airports in the Sahtu and other communities. I don’t want to miss out any

other communities. We have put investments into the NWT Housing Corporation. We have made investments into income support and power subsidy programs. The money that Minister Miltenberger talked about investing in the Arctic Energy Alliance so that we could give information awareness and investments about benefits to consumers in terms of the cost of living, those come out of this committee. Mr. Speaker, there is a whole list of them that already are in our capital budget. I would be happy to give them a rundown on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will provide them as soon as I can. Thank you.

I would like to ask the lead Minister for the cost of living if her committee is taking a look at the Deh Cho Bridge Project and its potential impact on the cost of living to residents in the North Slave region and all communities serviced by air out of Yellowknife. Has that gotten to her committee? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member is aware, the Deh Cho project is quite advanced and it is in charge of the Minister of Transportation. I believe the Minister of Transportation has answered some questions about cost of living implications. I beg to differ on some of the opinions the Member has on that. I think the Minister, and department, and the government has been willing to provide information that the Member is looking for. Thank you.

I will take that as a no. I guess the other thing I wanted to ask the Minister is how often does the committee meet and whether or not she could share the agendas of the meetings with Regular Members. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I have stated, at any time the committee wants to meet with us, we are available. We are ready to give the Member information. I will say it again, that all of the budget items that have gone, that we have talked about in this committee are in our budget to consider. If you would like that identified, we would be happy to do that. Any other documents that the Member wants, I will provide that to him. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, let’s be clear: we are not selling off pieces of the Power Corporation. We are not selling off our assets. We had a proposal put on the table by ATCO to look at a partnership arrangement. We have not gone down that line to see if, in fact, that is where we are going to go.

We talked about a process of reviewing electricity rates. Review of that was done. We are preparing our response to that. The NTPC report, we are sitting down with Members to go over that report and look at how we go forward on that initiative, but the issue that we need to deal with is how do we expand our abilities to generate electricity in the Northwest Territories that is affordable for people in the Northwest Territories. We looked at some options of that partnership. For example, on the existing Taltson project as it sits, we have partnered up with the Metis and the Akaitcho on the Deze front. On the issue of the ATCO proposal, back in January of 2009, when we sat down in Fort Simpson with the regional leaders, this issue was raised by the regional leaders. Would we be willing to look at a proposal from aboriginal businesses in the Northwest Territories? I informed them at that time, by all means, we are willing to look at that, so that if they felt that they wanted to put a joint proposal in, we are willing to look at those. To date we haven’t got a proposal from them, but the door is open to those types of partnerships. Thank you.