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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for those comments from the Minister. I’d like to just confirm, I appreciate that the Minister is taking a close look at the report that’s been done, doing an analysis with respect to the NWT specifically. Would the Minister provide the results of his analysis of this report NWT-specific comments to us, to the committee?

We would be happy to share the results of that evaluation. We’ll do it through the Social Programs committee.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask a question to the lead Minister of the gas issue in Norman Wells. DPW I believe is the Minister working with the town. I want to ask the Minister if the Premier communicated to him that the town council had requested some participants to be involved in their committee that looks for long-term solutions on the conversion of alternative heating sources and if the GNWT is going to play an important role in part of the town committee and this gas issue.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of natural gas supply in the municipality of Norman Wells has been a concern raised by the community for quite a few years now, as far back as the 14th Assembly. It became a very

serious concern as Imperial Oil had indicated during the life of the 15th Assembly that they would

be shutting down their supply. After a lot of discussion, which included ourselves and the Premier of the day, the company decided that they would supply another four years. So we’re on the second year of that commitment and we’re continuing to look at the long-term solutions with the municipality.

The community has done a lot of good work. They have been very proactive. They have engaged consultants and some technical expertise from our departments. I think they are moving at quite a good pace. There have been proposals submitted. There are options they have to work on, however, those haven’t been formalized and that work will continue. The Premier has conveyed the discussion that he has had with the municipality with our department.

The Town of Norman Wells wants to have the GNWT part of their committee, to be involved, not just to report to them when they’re asking for a report or update. I want to ask the Minister again, is the government actively involved in the committee as one of the committee members looking at this solution to deal with the supply of alternative source heating for the community?

Within our government we have the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee and through that committee we’ve set up a subcommittee that involves many of the departments across our government that deal with this issue that Norman Wells is facing. The chair of that subcommittee is the regional director. He’s in contact with the community on a regular basis. We have people in attendance at all the meetings that they have. I think they had one yesterday. We had our assistant deputy minister there, along with other government representatives. As to whether they sit formally or have been incorporated as part of the municipal committee, I can’t confirm that. I certainly would have to follow that up.

The town has indicated that when they go to a propane solution for the heating of the community and the residents, they would look towards millions of dollars to be invested to bring in the propane tanks and converting the whole town to that source of heating. I want to ask the Minister if he’s going to bring forward a discussion paper to this government or the next government to look at helping the Town of Norman Wells with the financial assistance to help the residents and possibly the businesses to look at converting some of their stoves, fridges, washers, dryers, furnaces, to help them with the stress of finding this new source of heating.

The community of Norman Wells has not reached that stage where they have put a price tag, nor have they reached

the point where they are deciding, or in a position to decide, whether they are going to go with propane or heating fuel. There is a lot of discussion that has to take place. There are some proposals on the table with a price tag on it. There are other factors that have to be considered. The proposal that has been presented to the community does not include the residents, does not include some of the commercial buildings. There has to be further analysis and we’d have to decide on next steps from that point on.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just recently the pipeline has sprung a leak in Alberta and just outside of Wrigley. Now there’s an emergency to the town of Norman Wells and looking at an emergency situation here. I’ll ask the Minister if his officials are in the community as we speak today, looking at how they can deal with the issue of helping them deal with this emergency. As noted by the MACA bureaucrat that this wasn’t considered an emergency, our mayor wasn’t very happy in Norman Wells. I want to ask the Minister what he is doing to look at the emergency issue in Norman Wells as we speak today on the leak of the pipeline in the valley.

It’s not within my area of responsibility to declare emergencies within the municipalities. That falls under a different department. I can confirm to the Member that we have been actively involved with the municipality. We have people on the ground. Our assistant deputy minister was in Norman Wells yesterday. We’ve had some good discussions. Imperial Oil was also at the meeting. Enbridge Pipelines was also at the meetings. There is a lot of concern within the municipality as the Plains Midwest Canada Pipeline sprung a leak and it had impacts that affected the community. We thought those issues would be resolved as that piece of pipeline was repaired. The request was placed with the Alberta Government to put the pipeline back on line. We have since, very recently, been made aware that there is a further pipeline leak just outside the community of Wrigley. Enbridge has engaged their staff. They’re on site right now. NEB has sent representatives and they’re looking at finding solutions to deal with that. That has compounded the situation in Norman Wells.

Imperial Oil has informed us that they’re putting further tanks on line as they need to be able to store the crude that they produce as the natural gas is a by-product of their production of crude. They’re putting two tanks on the line. We expect one to be in service today and another one tomorrow. Both would allow for another additional week of supply. We calculate that there would be roughly five weeks of supply in the system, and we’re also

looking at a synthetic natural gas conversion unit which mixes air with propane that would carry us through. There’s one in the municipality that’s being tested today and there is another one that is being dismantled in Calgary that will be brought up if required.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I was speaking about highway infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. In the last Conservative budget they did speak about $150 million investment in the Northwest Territories. However, I’m of the opinion that it should be for the whole of the Northwest Territories. I’d like to ask the Deputy Premier how does this Government of the Northwest Territories plan to respond to the results of the recent federal election and their budgeting process.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Deputy Premier, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I must humbly ask the Member to repeat the question. I was otherwise occupied and didn’t catch the question. I will either answer it or I will refer it to the appropriate Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Repeat your question please, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Deputy Premier, given the results of the recent federal election that’s all over with now -- we have a majority Conservative government -- I’d just like to know how our government plans to respond to the results of the recent federal election and their budgeting process. I understand that the old budget that they released in March is now dead. We’ll be looking at some new budgeting figures.

Once again I apologize to the Member for not catching the question the first time. It’s a very good, important question.

In the life left in this Assembly we have a number of priorities, as I indicated in my fiscal update. One of the key ones for us, of course, is going to be to get clarity on our borrowing limit. We also, like other jurisdictions, would like to know what’s going to be in the budget. We understand that they’ve committed to taking $11 billion out in terms of their efforts to fight the deficit and debts that they have as a federal government. We hear already that programs are being affected in the North because of that, so we have to track that very clearly,

because it’s going to impact our ability in a whole host of areas depending on what those cuts are.

I know the Premier has already been in contact with Ottawa about establishing contact and opportunity to sit down with Prime Minister Harper. As well, as soon as the Cabinet is announced, Ministers here will be as well doing that with their counterparts. Either the Ministers will be confirmed or there will be a change in portfolios. But regardless, as soon as confirmation is there, we will be moving to have that discussion with the Members that are going to be responsible for those federal portfolios. Thank you.

The Deputy Premier did well in answering those questions, and that’s exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for how is our government, how is our Minister going to engage with the new federal government to let them know our needs, especially our infrastructure needs. So just with that, Mr. Speaker, how is this government going to engage with the federal government to get resources for our NWT highway systems, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

One of the strong messages from Prime Minister Harper, when he was here, as reiterated by Minister Bob McLeod, was his commitment to look at a package that will assist the pipeline, but tied to infrastructure and other supports. So that will be one way. We all as Ministers have our work that was ongoing with the federal government that was put on hold as a result of the election. Indications from officials that we’ve been in contact with indicate that they’re still waiting for their confirmation by the Prime Minister of who’s going to be Cabinet Ministers in the government, and at that point things will start rolling again. We have all the issues we have had on the table prior to the election we will re-engage on. As well, we will be tracking some of the changes now that there’s a majority, what that may mean. There’s been a clear focus on deficit reduction. We have to find out what that will mean specifically. So we recognize that there’s going to be a turning away from stimulus to looking at deficit reduction and trying to balance the books. So we have to recognize that we’re not going to see $1.1 billion over the next three years anytime soon. So we’ll do all that work that I’ve just outlined. Thank you.

I think it’s very important for us to get in early and meet with the new federal government, and I would like our government to have a strategy to plan to be down there, our Ministers to be down there, our Premier to be down there, and let him know our infrastructure needs. The Conservative government had high commitment for our rural and remote communities and I would like our government to convey that as the federal government begins their process on working on their new federal budget, Mr. Speaker.

I’d like to ask the Deputy Premier his strategy with regard to that, as well. Mahsi.