Can the Minister be a bit more specific as to what percentage or dollar figure NTEC has in order to look at the power system plan?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Vician.

Could we get some clarification? Is this a one-time allotment to the NWT Energy Corporation or is this a multi-year program? I guess what I’m looking for is, what is the long-term strategy? Is this multi-year funding or one-time funding?

I guess the Minister leads me to my final question on the overall Energy Plan. As I mentioned in my opening comments, with all the different initiatives that we have on the go, there’s a myriad of multi-disciplinary, multi-functionality initiatives dealing with energy resources and cost of living. Everything boils down to this Energy Plan that we keep hearing about here in the House. Will we be expecting to see a finalized document, action plan for energy initiatives within this fiscal year?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I mentioned earlier, getting close to a deal on devolution, and certainly the Member hit a couple of high points here on the coordination. The proposal may be to look at a reorg and have a department like Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources set up where the coordination could take place inside one department. Those are decisions that are going to be made in the very near future, I would say. We

have that to look forward to. I think that has been an issue for some time on the coordination side. This might be an opportunity to correct some of that coordination and put it inside one department.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to ask a few questions with regard to energy and the Energy Plan, and funding within the budget. Mr. Vician advised that we have $700,000 out of the $1.1 million in grants and contributions that’s going to NT Energy Corporation. I’d like to know, first off, what the other $400,000 is for, what initiatives or activities it’s funding.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The remaining $400,000 would be for medium- and long-term energy options for Inuvik at $100,000, a water monitoring program in Kakisa for $50,000, and the Whati T-line completion of regulatory application for $250,000.

With regard to the Energy Plan, I too have concerns. We have been putting money into NT Energy Corporation as a corporation. The government has been putting money into NT Energy Corporation for quite some time. I appreciate that the department wants to focus on hydro and hydro initiatives but I’m quite concerned that we’ve been giving up money, so to speak, and not seeing anything for it. We haven’t had any results since I don’t know when it was. How many years ago now? There was a plan to have a transmission line go from south of the lake up to the mines and that now has been put aside and we’re looking at other things. I don’t have a sense from the department or from NT Energy Corporation of what the plan is for hydro going forward. I imagine the Minister is going to tell me that’s what this Energy Plan is going to be for.

Like my colleagues, I feel really strongly that we need to focus on getting ourselves off diesel. We need to focus on reducing the cost of our electricity and cost-of-living in that particular area. I don’t see that we have that long-term vision and plan. There’s lots of talk, I’ve heard lots of talk, but I haven’t seen anything concrete. The only thing in this budget that was just mentioned was the Whati transmission line. There’s money in the budget for that and that’s great, but there’s been any number of other projects mentioned which, sort of, are highlighted in one year and then fall off the table. I would like to know from the Minister, if we have a plan, when we’re going to see it, and if we don’t have a plan, why not. Thank you.

Madam Chair, on the Hydro Strategy and plan, it does fit in with the Energy Plan. We hope to have the work done on

that hopefully by the end of this year – by this spring, Peter says – then we can start making some decisions. I think the planning has to go into this.

The Member talks about getting off of diesel and I think that is our primary objective here. We have to find a way to get communities off of diesel, whether it’s hydro or through natural gas development in the central Mackenzie or in the Mackenzie Delta. We have to look at getting communities off of diesel. That has to happen. It has to be coordinated. It is through the planning that we’re going to get this coordination.

I thank the Member for her comments. We’re working toward just what she’s talking about, it’s going to take us a little bit more time. Thank you.

Madam Chair, yes, and it’s this fiscal year, not next fiscal year. At the very earliest opportunity, I am sure, through MECC, we will bring the Energy Plan through committee, share it with committee sometime before the next session in May. We will get that there. We’ll have this discussion and I think it’s going to be a very good discussion. The plan is going to be multi-year. Obviously, some of the bigger projects would require large investments and be carried out over multiple years. There will obviously be some

smaller things that could happen in the near term over one or two years.

This discussion has to happen. We will, like I said, at the earliest opportunity, through the chair of MECC and the MECC committee, bring the plan to committee at the earliest opportunity. That will probably be sometime before the session in May. Thank you.

Madam Chair, thanks to the Minister, I think, for that response. It’s kind of like, trust me, it’s going to be great, just wait, wait until you see it, it’s going to be really good. Pardon my cynicism, Mr. Minister. I believe there’s money in the budget for energy policy development, I think; I’m not exactly sure. I wonder if the Minister could explain to me if there is money in the budget for energy policy initiatives or development, and if so, what is the intent of the use of that money? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Vician.

Madam Chair, I’m done.

Thank you. Mr. Bromley.

Madam Chair, I just want to follow up a little bit here. The Minister mentioned, I think yesterday, the $9 million being spent on the Territorial Power Subsidy Program, and in addition to that, the $34 million over four years. I think the first year was $17 million. I think the next year was $9 million, or something like that, anyway descending as electricity rates go up and the public begins to catch up with the rates, which I appreciate the gradual approach there.

Did the Minister work with his colleagues to capture the difference in annual expenditures? For example, $17 million and next year $9 million. That’s a difference of $8 million we are no longer putting in. Did the Minister attempt to capture that and direct that, with his colleagues, to energy expenditures to help us deal with this situation?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Vician.