The Government of the Northwest Territories has been involved in this process, a party to the work that is underway. We have a commitment and an obligation, as we have assisted in the past in Inuvik when they converted from the high temperature system to natural gas, to work through the process with the community and to make sure that we are there to assist so that there is not an undue burden placed on individual citizens of Norman Wells. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Town of Norman Wells, because of the strict discipline financial fiscal policy they have, they had surplus money. When the situation became an issue for them, almost a crisis stage, they had to use their surplus money to help them keep the light and heat on in their houses. They applied for extraordinary funding from MACA, which MACA said no. They told them they are not eligible and besides you have extra money, so once you guys use that. They are suffering in the town of Norman Wells because they had to use their extra money that they want to do other things with, but they had to do the right thing, which was to keep the lights and heat on. That’s why I’m asking this government – we have been stung once – will we get stung twice in terms of the conversion, in terms of how this government here can be relied on to help the Town of Norman Wells? Their taps are being turned off.

Mr. Speaker, the reality is, for all of us, communities included, we get hit with unanticipated events, be it extra costs for a dam or in Yellowknife, energy costs because of gas in Inuvik, pipeline breaks outside of Norman Wells that shuts off supply, the natural gas issue. We all collectively have to be prepared to do our part.

I am committing here today that we are prepared to do our part. We will work with the community, work through this process so that they are not in this alone. We demonstrated our commitment in Inuvik. We are going to demonstrate our commitment in Norman Wells. We are going to be there as we work through this to get to a logical conclusion. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Town of Norman Wells feel very strongly that with the situation that happened in the town, the situation that was occurring that this government wasn’t there for them. They had to dig in their own bank account and take out the money and say, we will pay for the Hercules. We will pay for propane tanks. We will do this. The government did not come up and say, we will help you. To make insults worse, they said no, you are not eligible for extraordinary funding to help offset this here.

It’s a good thing they had strong financial planning that they were able to do this. That’s what they’re asking when they come to this situation, that the Government of the Northwest Territories is there for them when they do their conversion to what energy sources they are going to use. That’s what they want to know. They haven’t yet got it from this government. They committed to help them with energy planning, but they haven’t got to the $64 million question.

Will you be there for us when they want to convert and that tap gets turned off by Imperial Oil? They haven’t had an answer yet from the territorial government, even the federal government.

Mr. Speaker, there are things that have happened in the past that have their own character and complexity and annex. The reality is, and I will say it again, the Government of the Northwest Territories is involved and will continue to be involved with the community of Norman Wells in looking at its long-term energy needs as we deal with the direction and indication from Imperial Oil that their access to gas is going to be cut off. That work is already underway.

The good news is, as I have indicated, we have assurances that NTPC will not be impacted in the near term and the work is underway with the community to look at the conversion and a conversion to what. I agree with the Member; it won’t necessarily be one source of energy, but may be multiple sources. As that work proceeds, we will be involved in that work and we will be there when we look at the final option to see what financial role we should be playing along with the community to resolve that issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, replies to budget address. Item 12, petitions. Item 13, reports of standing and special committees. Item 14, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 15, tabling of documents. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Report of the Northwest Territories Judicial Remuneration Commission, 2012.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Item 16, notices of motion. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, on Monday, May 28, 2012, I will move the following motion: 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. Item 17, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 18, motions. Item 19, first reading of bills. Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 20, second reading of bills. Item 21, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 3-17(3), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2012-2013, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.

Okay, I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We have the budget document in front of us, Tabled Document 3-17(3), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2012-2013. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee wishes to continue on with general comments on the NWT Main Estimates 2012-2013 and also deliberate the departments of Human Resources and Public Works and Services.

Okay, we’ll do that after a short break. Thank you.

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I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are on general comments on the main estimates. Next I have Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger, would you like to go to the witness table and call your witnesses?

Yes, Madam Chair.

Is committee agreed?

Agreed. Thank you. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses to the table, please.

Mr. Miltenberger, for the record, would you please introduce your witness?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. We’ll continue with general comments and first I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My points I am going to be speaking on this afternoon are going to be around the way we do our operations as a government. As we’re well aware, the federal government gives the territorial government, the people of the Northwest Territories, about 75 percent of funding to do our own operations. We have not yet grown up enough for them. We need to do our own work to be fully accountable for our own spending and for the raising of our own money and operating as an independent, strong government. We still rely on the federal government for funds to operate our programs and services in the Northwest Territories.

From the other 30 percent of our budget, we raise our revenue through our own taxes and fees, et cetera. At the end of the day, we have about a $1.3 billion budget that we’re talking about today for our operational expenses.

We serve over 33 communities that have various needs. Some of the needs are greater than others for reasons such as some of the communities don’t have all-weather roads into their centres. Some regions don’t have the economic stimuli that we see that other regions have. There are many factors that impact expenditures in our communities.

We as MLAs all bring our own wish list to the Legislative Assembly, and through this budget process we bring our needs of the people to this Assembly. That’s the fine art of balancing our needs and our people’s needs with the government’s needs.

The government, through the bureaucracy, has a system where they would look at programs and services that we’re asking for to serve our people. Sometimes the policy doesn’t quite meet the exact needs that we want to have in our communities.

They also have to look at their own infrastructure. We heard the other day, Madam Chair, how much money it’s going to require just to update, maintain and build our infrastructure in the Northwest Territories.

So I wanted to say that when we sit on this side of the table as MLAs, we go through this process with the Minister and various Ministers to put our priorities on the table and look at how we can meet the needs of our people in our communities.

Cabinet also sits on the other side and it goes through its own process with their own deputies and directors asking what the government needs. We try to come up with a balance to say yes, this

budget we can live with. Our needs are always higher than our revenue coming in. The Minister is well aware that one of the solutions to our dilemma and taking charge of our own destiny, we’ve said it privately and publicly, that devolution is one vehicle that we can use in the future for helping ourselves.

I talked a little bit about the situation in Norman Wells. Depending on which side of the table you’re sitting on, there’s a lot of TB going on there in that area, the Tulita district. We certainly can look at situations like that that haven’t been planned for. Just like the Norman Wells natural gas situation with Imperial turning the taps off in 2013 and then finally in 2014. We know the situation; we know the challenges to help our people deal with that situation. The government, for us in our communities, we see them being there to support us. We need to look at some of these policies in the budget where they support the people. We know our jails are overcrowded and 90 percent of those in jail it’s due to alcohol. It’s clearly written in the judges’ sentencing, in RCMP reports and it’s known in our communities that these people are in jail because of alcohol. It even shows up in our liquor revenue charts that we, in the North, we drink. We drink a lot. In Sahtu last year we drank $2.1 million of liquor sales, booze. It’s known there.

We need to take a step back and say this is what we need to do. We need to get to the people and let the people know we are hearing them. We need to continue to be connected to them. We need to know that this government is going to look at dealing with this issue in a comprehensive, cross-departmental way. We’re too small to think like we’re in Ottawa. We are only 19 MLAs. We need to look at the communities and say this is what we need to do to help you.

Sometimes we hear we can’t do this, we can’t do this. That kind of thinking has to go. The thinking that we can say what can we do to help you, how can we help you, that’s what we need to hear from the government policies, the appeals, the process.

The Minister talked about a $74 million surplus. I hope that’s an opportunity for us to sit around and see how we can help our communities, such as emergency funding. We should be there when there’s flooding. Departments need to be there for the people, not for themselves or the government system that we’ve set up. If we’re responsible for that, then we’re responsible for changing that. It means we might get bit in the hand, but we’ve got to do something.

So I want to raise that, Madam Chair, that we need to look at some of the first things first and addiction is a big one in my community. A lot of good people out there know the harms of it, the destructive behaviour and they want to get out of it, but we need the government to help us. In our budget we give about 45 percent of our funding to the

communities through contributions and grants. We sometimes treat our communities the way the Government of Canada treats the territorial government. It just filters down.

Madam Chair, I hope through this budget process that the Minister and Ministers have some understanding, flexibility where we need to make some changes and connect back to the people. Sometimes the system is not quite understandable for our people. I think that the Minister has some things in here that I like. I was hoping we would hear a little more on some things in the Sahtu and that there are some other things in play that would maybe satisfy me to say yes, we can do this budget this year. It’s all about trust. I trust the Cabinet with what they say they are going to do and see where we need to make some change. We have a lot of work ahead of us, Madam Chair, and I look forward to going through this process with the Minister. Mahsi.