Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Wednesday, December 14, 2011, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the Government of the Northwest Territories work with business, organizations and those living in poverty to complete an Anti-Poverty Strategy for the Northwest Territories;

And further, that the Anti-Poverty Strategy identify specific measurable targets with clear cross-departmental mechanisms for coordination and integration of actions;

And furthermore, that the government provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that the Speaker be authorized to set

such sitting days and hours as the Speaker, after consultation, deems fit to assist with the business before the House.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called.

---Carried

Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 2-17(1), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2012-2013. By the authority given to me as a Speaker by Motion 18-17(1), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider the business before us in the House, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.

I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. There is one issue on our agenda today. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Dolynny.

Madam Chair, Committee of the Whole requests to continue Tabled Document 2-17(1), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2012-2013. More importantly, we would like to work today on Public Works and Services; Education, Culture and Employment; and Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. We will commence with that after a short break. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. As per the committee’s wish, we are going to deal with the capital budget for Public Works and Services; Education, Culture and Employment; and Health and Social Services.

I would like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Services, the Honourable Jackson Lafferty, if he would like to call witnesses with him to the witness table. Mr. Lafferty.

Yes, I do, Madam Chair.

Is

committee agreed?

I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. I will ask Members if they can be thinking about any general comments that you have with regard to the capital budget for Public Works and Services.

I’d like to ask Mr. Lafferty if he would like to please introduce his witnesses for the record. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. To my left is Paul Guy, deputy minister of PWS; and also John Vandenberg, director of petroleum products division.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. General comments on this department’s capital budget. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I find this department intriguing and interesting, working in an area that has definite challenges but real clear opportunities. One of the opportunities and good work that’s being done is the adoption of the building standards; it’s 25 percent better than the Model National Energy Building Code, if I’ve got that term right. I appreciate that. The opportunity I see is to spread that to our communities, ideally starting with our Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. I’m wondering what opportunities this department has taken in working to get their sister department MACA up to speed on this.

The other area that I see this department doing a lot of good work in is the adoption of renewable energy, in almost every case at cost savings. Again, good work in developing a revolving fund which captures the benefits of this work, the savings from this work, and reinvests this on behalf of the taxpayers and the residents of the Northwest Territories into a fund to continue that good work. That’s another opportunity that I see for other departments, if this department could work to spread that cultural knowledge.

One of the big ones I’ve talked about quite a number of times is the opportunity to undercut the need for very expensive fossil fuel containment and storage. Again, these often run in the millions of dollars, as I suspect they do this year. Whenever there are clear opportunities to reduce the need for those fossil fuels, and similarly reduce the need for the very expensive storage and containment that that engenders. Of course, I’m not sure what the department has been able to achieve in this area because I only see the activity when they do build new containment and so on. There it is clear when it is community structures that they have not done the work that I feel they have the opportunity to do in concert, of course, with their sister departments and the communities themselves. The reason I speak on this is because we do have broad

government goals of new employment, a revved up local economy in our small communities as well as our large communities, the overall reduction in cost to government, and of course the reduction in environmental costs, especially today, as we know from all the science, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

I just want to take this opportunity; I will be bringing these points home with some specifics as we go through division by division here today. I did want to be sure to again compliment the department, and urge them to continue and spread the cultural knowledge that they’re developing. I will be asking again for, if it’s possible, a summary as we have been provided in past years of the greenhouse gas savings, the reduction in the costs or the financial savings, and any information that the department collects in terms of the employment and the development of the industry of renewable energy, energy efficiency, recovered waste energy. This is an area that I know there are good things happening but we haven’t seen much for stats on it.

Each time we bring a market, for example for wood pellets, into a community, that begins to deal with the logistical challenges and costs for a homeowner or a business within that community to take advantage of that same energy source and allow them to springboard forward to similar savings and so on.

That’s it. I just wanted to highlight those and I would appreciate any response from the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. First, the 25 percent earmark that the Member alluded to about the building codes, working with MACA and other departments, there’s been a discussion as well. When it comes to policies, those policies are also in discussion with the communities that we deal with on a continuous basis. We try to meet those standards as well.

Renewable resource energy across the board has been of high importance within our department, again working with other departmental areas when it comes to renewable energy in that fashion.

Also reducing the need for fossil fuels. I’ll get Mr. Guy to elaborate a bit more in these areas and also reduction of environmental costs. If I could have Mr. Guy explain more in detail.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Guy.

Thank you, Mr. Guy. Any further general comments on the Department of Public Works and Services’ capital budget?