I hope doing what they can do includes involving their partners. I’m told as well that the Coalition Against Family Violence was not informed or consulted on the development of the Domestic Family Violence Treatment Option Court Program. This in spite of the fact that the same GNWT Justice officials who participate in the coalition meetings are part of the separate team that came up with the court program. Two different programs, some of the same individuals, spending resources possibly at cross purposes with no cross consultation by the same people who are members of both groups. This is incomprehensible to me. Is it indeed true? Does this Minister know if this is true?

I think we’re at a point where there have been identified partnerships in the communities. We need to involve those partners, the potential partners that are out there. We need to work together. We need to have this as an effective tool so we can reach out to those victims as well. So those are the initiatives through the Justice department that we’ll continue to pursue to reach out to the 33 communities.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Short question. I appreciate the Minister’s recognition of the need to act. Will the Minister act quickly to meet with the Coalition Against Family Violence, receive and incorporate their input, and report back to Social Programs on the results obtained quickly?

My department can definitely meet with the Coalition Against Family Violence, the group, and report back on what’s happening, how they can be involved. We have various partners involved as well. It’s not only the Coalition Against Family Violence, the groups are out there. There are other NGOs that we need to work with, like, again, the 33 communities that we need to reach out to those victims and also the communities.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. With the vote coming on

Monday with respect to Yellowknife’s Con geothermal project, if the vote is yes there is going to be significant opportunity for the City of Yellowknife to provide stable, affordable and reliable heat to businesses throughout the community, especially in the downtown core. If these businesses want to gain maximum benefit, many of them are going to have to consider doing some energy retrofits on their buildings windows and whatnot. Through the Minister’s department, the Arctic Energy Alliance provides some really fantastic rebates to residents, non-business residences, to help them do some energy retrofits and purchase equipment in their homes that use less power. But I’m not sure, and I haven’t been able to find any information whether or not these types of rebates are available to businesses who want to do some energy retrofits themselves to maximize things like the Giant-Con geothermal project.

My question for the Minister is: what is available to business throughout the Northwest Territories to help them create more energy-efficient buildings? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as I’m aware, there are two programs. The Energy Efficiency Incentive Program and the Energy Conservation Program are both open for applications from business, residents and communities. Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for that. I appreciate that response. In talking to businesses that are interested in this geothermal project, many of them talk about the buildings being a little bit run down. Some of the apartment buildings we’re talking about are fairly old and they’re going to need windows and doors and things like that. I’m not suggesting the government pay for those, but would these rebate programs assist with things like that? Would it provide some incentive for these businesses to replace some windows and create some better heat containment within their properties? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I believe the opportunity would be there to do a range of things including the audit to determine what types of things are needed, if it’s energy efficiency, if it’s retrofit, the doors or windows, or the type of doors and windows, the insulation. Assistance maybe to, in fact, lead to other potential pots of money possibly from the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the need to clean up contaminated sites. I have questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister what the plan is for cleaning up contaminated sites in Tu Nedhe. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has raised the issue of example, Stark Lake, in this House. We know that there are issues still related to Pine Point that are still being dealt with. We are responsible and we are taking the appropriate steps. There are many cases, in fact the majority of them, where the federal government is still responsible, like Stark Lake. The plan is to continue to work with the federal government in terms of remediating those sites, and as we look to devolution and the AIP and the negotiations that are going to take place, there will be negotiations as well starting to make sure that as we transition we cover off the proper remediation for those various sites, both ones that the federal government is responsible for now as well as what the territorial government is currently responsible for. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me if there’s any sort of schedule in place to clean up those sites? Thank you.

There’s information that we have that I can make sure the Member has that lays out the sites and the work that’s being done in the different areas and some of the scheduling. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I mentioned in my Member’s statement that I thought the Interim Resource Management Agreement would be a good avenue. I’m just wondering if the Minister could give me a status and what the funding is surrounding the Interim Resource Management Agreement. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are several hundreds of thousands of dollars that’s cost shared between ourselves and the federal government and that money is in the budget again this year. As well, we are looking at other opportunities, partnering up as it relates to water in the Delta around Chip and the Chip-Athabasca, the Peace-Athabasca Delta and down into the Slave lowlands with Parks Canada, with the Alberta government, with the territorial government, as well as the Aboriginal governments. So there are other opportunities as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the partnering up with those various groups, I’m wondering if the Minister could ensure that once the work is started on cleaning up these sites, that local labour is used for the areas that are being cleaned up. Thank you.

The answer would be affirmative, that we see a tremendous value, especially on issues where traditional knowledge will be very valuable and local knowledge and intimate knowledge of the land and the water. So, yes, we will, as we proceed, make that commitment. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the concerns of the water and sewer infrastructure in Northland Trailer Park. It’s reached about as bad as it can get, Mr. Speaker. To put the problem into perspective, in the sense of comparative value, Mr. Speaker, Northland would be representative of a medium-sized community here in the Northwest Territories. If you want to lay it out in another way, 259 families probably captures in a similar comparison as maybe the community of Aklavik. Again, just as a comparative size of a medium-sized community. Mr. Speaker, we wouldn’t let a small community, a medium community go with infrastructure that doesn’t work anymore such as water and sewer. I mean, two weeks without it is certainly a shame.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs as to what is he willing to do as Minister, and the department as well, what are they willing to do to bring financial resources to the table to help deal with this collective problem that is affecting 259 families? Thank you.