Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Page 12-18, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, minerals and petroleum resources, grants and contributions, contributions, total contributions, $925,000.

Thank you. Page 12-19, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, information item, minerals and petroleum resources, activity positions.

Thank you. Page 12-21, Industry, Tourism and Investment, activity summary, energy, operations expenditure summary, $1.619 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister mentioned about the small hydro initiatives and I want to ask the Minister, what do the community of Deline specifically and the people from the Sahtu and the Northwest Territories look forward to in this budget to see if the Deline or Great Bear hydro project would actually see some design, some steps towards construction of a possible mini-hydro in that area. They’ve been at it for about nearly 16 or 17 years. I guess when is this talking going to start and when are we going to see some action putting that hydro in the Bear River?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Vician.

We certainly look forward to it. I again ask, we continue looking, studying, studying and studying, and fly to different locations, and look at this plant, but other than contributing dollars to further studies and further studies I ask the question when will this hydro project see construction phases. When? The community’s been waiting for 16 or 17 years. Now he’s telling me there’s going to be another $100,000 study and next year there’s going to be another one.

I’m getting a little bit frustrated on this side here. I’d like to see some construction. The high cost of living in the Sahtu, people in Deline have been waiting for this. I know the goodness in the Minister’s heart and staff is there, but we need to

see something other than putting another $100,000 to a study. I believe probably this is the most studied hydro initiative other than Lutselk'e or Whati or any other. You put $37 million in the Blue Fish hydro plant here. Why don’t you put some money in the Bear River? You put money elsewhere. You were going to throw a whole bunch of money to the Taltson and the mines. That didn’t follow through. Yet, we’re still waiting in Bear Lake.

The Bear Lake hydro power can power Tulita and Norman Wells. It can cut the costs down in Deline. If we don’t smarten up, the people in Deline just might go without us and we’d have nobody to blame but ourselves. I know they’re being patient and they’ve been working and you guys have been working hard.

Again, I want to ask the Minister, I appreciate the $100,000 plan for it but it does nothing but put papers there and studies. That doesn’t bring the power down in Deline or anywhere. All it tells you is what possibly could happen. I’d like to ask the Minister again, and I might not get an answer here, and that’s okay. I accept that. I accept it of this government here that they’re not going to do anything in terms of constructing the hydro in Bear River for the people. But I can see a lot of the projects going on in the Northwest Territories that had less than 16 years to wait.

I guess I’m venting a little bit and I appreciate them listening to my venting, but I would appreciate if the Minister can give me some time frames. I don’t know if I’m putting him on the spot or on this government, but I’d certainly like to see a hydro project up in Bear Lake or something to reduce their energy. If I look at that list I had last week and I can see that $16 million went right around the Sahtu. How many other communities had projects going in there to reduce their cost of living? We didn’t get very much in the Sahtu. That’s what I want to tell the Minister, and this is one project that they’ve been asking for.

Again, I ask the Minister. I’m frustrated. I’m venting, but I certainly want to see a project in the Bear River sometime. I hope it’s a little bit sooner than later. I want to ask the Minister again: When can we start seeing some construction other than more studies? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s concerns, and I also appreciate his passion about hydro and the development of hydro not only in the Sahtu but in the territory. That’s important.

With respect to the situation on the Bear, we have had money in the past to look at various hydro solutions for that river with the community of Deline and we’ve yet to establish a feasible solution on

that river. I recently had the opportunity to meet with the president of the land corp, new Chief Kenny, and we had a very good meeting and they explained to us a new approach to hydro development on the Bear which would include a channel being run parallel to the river itself and wouldn’t involve damming the river at all. That’s something we want to explore with the community of Deline.

We believe this is an indication that we’re still very supportive of the advancement of hydro in the Sahtu. We do look forward to the day when we can find a viable solution to the Bear. When we do find that, we’re going to have to identify the capital dollars associated with developing that potential, and that could be substantial. I thank the Member again for his concern.

I’ve been a Member as long as the Minister’s been a Member and this has been a passion of mine for a long, long time. The Minister knows where I’m coming from. He would sit with us one day on this side and now he’s a Minister. He’s actually the Minister of this project here. So I’m hopeful that Minister keeps an eye on this and works with the people in Deline and myself to get and keep this issue going here.

I want to ask the Minister in regard to the energy plans in the Northwest Territories. I know the communities have been busy working on their energy plans. I think there’s some correlation to the federal government’s funding. I’m not too sure how that works quite in detail. I may be wrong on the energy plans, putting together the community energy plans. I know the development of these energy plans is something that’s very important to our people, and I want to ask the Minister, in brief, their plans for the upcoming year to see these energy plans be renewed or fully developed in the Northwest Territories and how we’re going to connect with the GNWT’s energy priorities through the communities’ energy plans. Thank you.

I thank the Member for that. The subject of community energy plans doesn’t fall necessarily under ITI’s mandate, but to my recollection most communities are completed through the Building Canada Plan their community energy plans. That question may be better suited maybe when MACA is before committee. But that’s my understanding. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Page 12-21, activity summary, energy, operations. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have concerns here, again, back to my opening comments about the decrease in the amount of dollars committed to energy. We do have two communities here that are going to be in dire need. Inuvik is one of them, and it’s going to be sooner than later. Who knows when that’s going to

happen? Then we’ve got Norman Wells coming up in a couple years. To have the amount of money that’s contributed to it, there’s already been discussions of due to the budget address that we had earlier in the year where it was mentioned that it was $100,000 for the wood pellets and the boilers, and people are already talking about using that funding to convert back and getting off natural gas just because of the situation that’s on there. We’re looking at long-term solutions, obviously. For the town of Inuvik, that’s something that we don’t want to see, but with the high cost of living, is this something that the Minister is willing to take a look at and maybe adding more dollars to the medium- and long-term solution planning, other than just the $100,000 that’s allocated there? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With the funds that we do have, we will continue to put those to the best use possible and continue to pursue solutions. I think that’s the most important thing. Through MECC we are continuing to pursue a solution. Again, I believe we will be meeting with the IJV and the town again later this week. We have been front and centre when it comes to the situation in Inuvik and we will continue to be so. Thank you.

With the announcement of the Minister’s address, I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls from my constituents back in Inuvik in regard to how to use this $100,000, and as the other $100,000 that’s been allocated to do a strategic plan, as the planning process continues to move forward and all the leaders are at the table discussing how we can best deal with this situation, while discussions are going on there are a lot of worried people in the community of Inuvik with the residents and constituents. I do know that there is a meeting going on tomorrow and I hope we get some really positive outcomes of that.

As my colleague has stated earlier in regard to energy, this government is spending millions of dollars on subsidizing the fuel costs throughout the Northwest Territories. Those are monies that we can be looking at saving in the future by investing today, investing in our future today so that we don’t have to pay the costs further down the road.

Those are just some general comments. I do know there is a meeting tomorrow. I just hope that we get the best solutions out of that. It would be unfortunate if this was the only money allocated and then we have to find solutions elsewhere, but I look forward to hearing the outcomes of those. I look forward to seeing what can be addressed. That is the Inuvik situation, but as I mentioned, Inuvik and Norman Wells are the two main ones, but it is communities right across the Northwest Territories,

the high cost of living. That is it, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. There was kind of a question there. Mr. Ramsay, would you like to address it?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s observations on this. The most important thing is we continue to move forward, we find solutions, and the situation in Inuvik is not cut and dried. It is very complex. It is going to be difficult to find a solution, but I believe by working together we will find that solution and move forward.

We can’t take our eye off the opportunities like in hydro, biomass or solar. I think we continue to pursue those initiatives and eventually that reinvestment will have to happen in the area of alternative energy. We will have to identify money as government goes forward into these areas. I can see that happening when our financial situation improves. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay and Mr. Moses. Page 12-21, activity summary, energy, operations expenditure summary, $1.619 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think my colleague has expressed concerns about this area, as we did in our motion in the House on Thursday. This is a walloping 78 percent cut to energy planning. I know there has been concern about the lack of progress on this front during the 16

th Assembly despite spending a lot of dollars, so

we perhaps do indeed need to go back to the drawing board and do some better planning there.

On the other hand, we have done a lot of feasibility work and feasibility studies. We have, in my mind, procrastinated to the point where some of those opportunities are now slipping by the wayside as fossil fuel prices have gone beyond what the original estimates were. We need to be lighter on our feet and take advantage of opportunities when they are here.

ITI is actually now down to $1.1 million. It is not the $1.6 million here. According to the Minister’s opening remarks, in terms of energy initiatives, $1.15 million in energy initiatives, $700,000 of which is providing money to the NTEC – that is the Northwest Territories Energy Corporation – for core funding for staff. Does that mean we are hiring seven staff here? Maybe I can get an explanation of what the $700,000 is for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Vician.