Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that the Member suggests that we are irrational, especially since all of those expenditures were approved by this House. Nevertheless, we spent a significant amount of money to look at solar, geothermal, biomass, all of those alternatives, and we have, through the Public Utilities Board, worked with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation to establish a process for net metering. We are quite prepared to go down that road. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I do indeed appreciate the investigation of that metering by the Power Corporation. Unfortunately, it has set a purchase price at a ridiculously low price and will go nowhere until we establish a feed-in tariff price. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment there to investigate this feed-in tariff and put one in place.

The smart grid and time of day pricing have proven to reduce costs and usually increase efficiency of energy systems. An example of that is putting down, taking off the peak power requirement that reduces energy efficiency in our systems to about 20 or 25 percent; very inefficient. Will the Minister commit to learning about this tool and promoting its application in the Northwest Territories, the smart grid? Thank you.

The smart grid as described sounds very exciting. This is something that we would very much want to investigate and explore. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment once again. We need to move from an outdated energy system

that is costing our people in every way, to one that promotes healthy land, people and economies. What steps will the Minister take to get all of this done during our term? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we intend to continue to build on work that was started in the 16th Assembly, where we undertook a number of

pilot projects and a number of new initiatives. As part of the 17th Assembly, we will continue to work.

We will be looking to identify resources through the business planning process. We will want to continue to increase our use of alternative and renewable sources of energy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I received several phone calls last night. I want to ask the Minister of Housing on the announcement of including elders on this rent scale. How many elders would be affected on this new announcement to have them start paying rent by July 1st ?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have approximately just over 700 seniors right now that are currently paying zero. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, how many of these 700 seniors are in the Sahtu that there is going to be an impact by this announcement?

Mr. Speaker, I don’t have the numbers broken down as per region. However, I can gather that information and share it with the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, first initial reaction for some of the constituents of mine were saying, what is happening? What is going on? Why are they charging rent now or planning to charge seniors this rent scale? What is the thinking behind these changes to the rent scale for the elders who are going to be paying rent if it all goes through on July 1st ?

Mr. Speaker, this has been a discussion that has been going on for a number of years. Seniors have been very fortunate in the past where they have had to pay no rent. It is still costing the Housing Corporation an average $16,000 to $24,000 a year to maintain these units. The thinking behind it is during the engagement process there were a lot of seniors that had

expressed a willingness and they don’t mind paying their fair share. There are some that were reluctant to phone for maintenance services because they don’t pay any rent. Some of this was brought on by the seniors themselves. The fact is that, with everything going on and declining funding and everything, it is just not sustainable anymore to be doing this. Our population is aging. We are looking at probably double or triple the amount of seniors by the time the federal funding expires. It is something that is just not sustainable anymore for the NWT Housing Corporation. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly what I have heard from the Sahtu elders certainly didn’t relay that message to me. Really it was the younger people who were working that want to make sure the rent scale was adjusted. Our elders in the Sahtu certainly didn’t convey that to me, and I don’t think that’s an accurate picture that the Minister is saying, that some of the seniors want to pay their rent. So, Mr. Speaker, I know the government may not agree with me, but I cannot sit here and agree with this principle of charging the elders rent coming in July. It’s just unacceptable, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know what to do about it, but why should I sit here and pretend that it’s okay to start charging or plan to charge our elders rent in my region when the cost of living is so high?

Thank you. I can understand the Member. He’s listening, obviously, to his constituents, and we didn’t expect this to be a very popular move, but it’s one that we felt needed to be made. There will be some adjustments.

Looking at the overall rent scale review, I think there’s been a lot of positive changes in there that are going to effect a lot of people across the Northwest Territories. So when we undertook this exercise, we looked at all aspects of how we deliver housing and we tried to improve on them. We’re in a situation where we need to make best use of our money for investments, and we’ve also added an exemption in there for seniors. So their money that can be assessed is a lot higher than the regular tenants. So we have made some conditions for seniors, so a lot of those seniors living on fixed incomes will be paying the minimum, not based on what they actually make. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Last week I made great efforts to represent Fort Liard, the Nahendeh constituents, with Highway No. 7. I would like to continue and

ask the Minister of Transportation about Highway No. 7 once again.

The Conference Board of Canada recently released an article on closing the transportation infrastructure gaps in Canada, and they made note of highlighting Highway No. 7 that’s been closed every year for the last three years for at least two weeks, indicating that it interrupts mail, grocery supplies, as well as disrupting emergency medical services.

I’d like to ask the Minister, I know that last week in Committee of the Whole I made great strides to get commitments to work on the road this spring. However, the second part of my initiative was to get the Minister to raise the issue in Ottawa and also to make it a priority of our government. So when is the next opportunity that he will be meeting with his federal counterparts? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The condition of Highway No. 7 is important to the Government of the Northwest Territories and the folks who live in Nahendeh and the Deh Cho region. We certainly will be trying to set up a meeting with my counterpart, Minister Lebel. I will be in Ottawa from the 27th to the 29th , and I’m

hoping to have the opportunity to sit down with Minister Lebel at that time. Thank you.

Thank you very much. It’s clear that our territorial government knows that they need to rebuild the road, but it’s got limited resources, as well as it’s clear, also, that Cabinet must address the northern transportation infrastructure and the financial gap that we have. Also, I’d like if the Minister would raise it with the federal Minister and also indicate that because of our low population density, it’s not a reason to defer projects and expenditures in our riding.

So I would like to ask the Minister what type of strategy, how he will raise the issue with the federal Minister. Thank you.

If we are going to grow our resources and our economy here in the Northwest Territories, an integral part of that is having a transportation system and infrastructure built here in the territory that is going to support the growth of our economy and lead us in that direction. We’ve been stressing this point to the federal government for a number of years and will continue to stress the importance of our transportation infrastructure to the federal government any chance we get. Thank you.

I’d like to ask the Minister what strategy he is developing, in that previous administrations have created documents, such as Connecting Canada and other documents. I’d like to know what the Minister’s strategy is when he’s

meeting with the federal government, because the development of our northern roads, particularly Highway No. 7, is critical to the economic development of my region and the Northwest Territories. Thank you.