Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ve just got a number of things that I want to mention in no particular order. I don’t think it will be any surprise to the Minister to hear me talk about the cost of electricity and what we are doing about it or not doing about it. I am particularly concerned about our subsidy program. It’s a great subsidy, it’s keeping my bills down and I’m happy for that. But I am extremely concerned about what happens when we get to the end of our subsidy for the increased power rates that we’re now experiencing. What are the next steps, is where my head is going. What plan do we have as a government to get us off subsidies? I haven’t yet heard from the government, whether it’s from ITI or whether it’s from the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee. I haven’t heard a plan that will make me feel comfortable that we’re not going to be providing millions and millions of dollars in subsidies until time immemorial. So that’s a real concern for me and I think it’s something that in the next couple of years we as a government need to develop a plan and have a long-range and concrete idea about what we’re going to do to deal with the amount of money we put into subsidies.
With regard to tourism, and the Minister mentioned it in his opening comments and it was in the Minister of Finance’s budget address, as well, I’m
extremely pleased to hear that there is going to be an increase to the marketing budget for NWT Tourism. I think it’s overdue. Tourism is a really large part of economic activity in the NWT, and NWT Tourism has been saying for a couple of years now that they want to expand tourism in the NWT but they need to do marketing and they need the money to do adequate marketing. So I’m really pleased to see that we will get an increase to their marketing budget this year and then again in the next budget year. I think that’s going to bode them really well. I think it will also have a big impact on many of our communities outside of the regional centres who may be able to take advantage of the marketing that’s done and develop some businesses.
A minor item, but it does have an impact, and it has to do with parks and the closing date for our parks. My understanding is that we select a date, I think it’s September 15th , and that is the hard and fast
date when we close our parks in the fall. If September 15th falls on a Thursday or a Friday and
the weather is halfway decent, or even if it’s not decent, we still would have people who would want to go out and use the parks after that date. I think it would be of value for the department to consider a flexible date for closing depending on where the 15th of September falls in a week. If it’s falling on a
Monday, well, that’s not a problem, but if it’s falling on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, then I think it would be to our advantage to leave the parks open so our residents can have an opportunity to get another weekend of camping in no matter where they are.
The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Office, I note in the budget that we still have that office, and I believe the budget document references that we do provide money to the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. I have to wonder why we are doing that. There hasn’t been any activity, really, on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline for quite some time. My concern is, why are we giving money to the Aboriginal Pipeline Group?
The Sport Hunters Outfitters Marketing Program is something which has been, I think, fully recognized, been accepted and needed by our caribou outfitters. I think it went down quite a bit in money in this current budget year and I gather that there’s an increase in the next budget year. The outfitters are really struggling and I think I would like to have the Minister consider a long-term commitment to this program as opposed to just year by year. An increase in money is always a good thing. I think the outfitters, from what I understand, would like to have… It does cost them probably around $30,000 or $40,000 annually just to keep up their camps. If we could commit to a program that is three years in length as opposed to just one year, and if we could commit to the amount of money that’s required to ensure that outfitters have at least enough money
to maintain their camp in any one year, that would really be of value for them.
I haven’t heard much lately so it makes me wonder about the Come Make Your Mark Campaign. It was very loudly promoted, there was a lot of ballyhoo, for lack of a better word, about it a year or two years ago. I haven’t heard anything in probably the last 12 months. Is that program still operating? Are we still putting money into it? I wonder about the success of that program. Are we not hearing about it because it hasn’t been successful, or are we not hearing about it because it is successful? I would like to know where things are at with that particular program.
Lastly, I’m struggling with my notes here, but I think with regard to NTPC and the government, we talked about this some time ago, but where are things at with the Power Corporation, and the relationship of the Power Corporation to the government? There were some changes being made, I think, at one point. It kind of goes to energy production or electricity production. Do we as a government have the capacity to guide the Power Corporation to where we want to go? It’s hard for me to get out there what I’m trying to say. As a government, and I think it goes back to the subsidies and cost of electricity, are we able to use the Power Corporation to our advantage as opposed to having to bend to their will, so to speak? I hope that was clear. I’m struggling with words on that one.
That’s all I have. Thank you very much.