I’m sticking to a seasonal target at this point, but by fall, September, October, we expect to have all the necessary steps covered. We want to, of course, do our briefing with committee, get feedback from committee, and it’s going to apply to standby charges as well. I would point out that the net metering and the change is going to be focused on thermal communities and initially to look specifically at solar.

The Minister did touch on another question here that I was going to ask about the

standby charges, and he did mention that they‘d be looking at possibly getting away with the standby charges, which is also great. Seeing as we’re at the beginning of summer here and we’re into 24-hour daylight here, and any businesses in the Northwest Territories that want to access this solar energy while we have a longer day period, seeing as we’re going to be passing this policy in the fall time, is there any chance that any businesses that might try to get an initiative now be able to recoup any types of savings come the fall, get that back over the summer months? Knowing what we know today, from this day forward if they get into the alternative energy sources, would they be able to recoup some of those costs back when the policy goes through?

I would suggest that if folks are interested, businesses are interested, that they look to the subsidies and grants that are available to start up and assist with alternative energy infrastructure; solar, biomass and that type of thing. Those have been increased; the amount of money has been raised; the ceilings have been raised so that the level of support, and I believe where it was $25,000 is up to $50,000. So if they’re just wanting to get started today and they want to think about it, then they’ve got to do their plan and they’ve got to buy the infrastructure and I think that would be the first port of call, and then as we get down the road with the regulatory changes, that will be the fall.

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

The way it currently sits, there’s no incentive for these businesses or residents to really go into this with all the energy going back into the grid. I want to know with the subsidies, outside of the subsidies, would any of these businesses that are ready to go now, would they be able to get any kind of retroactive payback from knowing what we know now and when it comes through in the fall? Yes or no?

In this case I would suggest that virtue would have to be its own reward, the savings that they would have in their own businesses, and the answer would be no.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of MACA. I could also ask other questions to the other Ministers, but this one I want to focus on with the Minister of MACA and ask him what types of resources are available for a youth centre in Fort Good Hope. At the same time, I want to congratulate the communities of Ulukhaktok, Fort Resolution and Deline in regard to

their youth centres. I want to ask similar types of questions to the Minister on a youth centre for Fort Good Hope.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The community of Fort Good Hope could do as some of the other communities across the Northwest Territories have done. Through their capital infrastructure money that they receive through MACA, they’ve determined that a youth centre is one of the priorities in their community. Therefore, the community has taken it upon themselves to build that community youth centre, and as the Member mentioned, there is a number of communities that have done an excellent job in putting some good projects on the ground.

It is said that it takes a community to raise a child. It also takes our government and the community government to raise a youth centre. So I want to ask the Minister if he’s had any type of discussions with the Minister of Health and Social Services or the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and even the community of Fort Good Hope, in looking at how can we put a comprehensive plan together to support a community youth centre in Fort Good Hope, where different programs and different funding from all the governments and Ministers to put an overall comprehensive plan together that would support a youth centre concept in Fort Good Hope?

I would suggest that the community determine whether it’s a priority. I mean, we’ve obviously given them capital infrastructure money. Also, once their youth centre is completed, then there is some other money through the Youth Centre Initiative that they would be able to access. I believe it’s $500,000 that is available to all the youth centres that apply. In 2012-13 I think we had 36 successful applicants. So, basically, everyone that applies gets approved for a portion of that $500,000. So the support is there. Again, at the end of the day, it would be a decision made by the community.

Obviously, as the Minister of Youth and along with my colleagues from Health and Social Services, we would support any initiative the community takes upon themselves to put a facility there for their youth. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the people in Fort Good Hope, led by the elders, want a traditional camp on the land. It’s their concept of a youth centre. It doesn’t always have to be a traditional infrastructure in the community, so they want a youth camp to bring the youth back to the land. I’ll ask the Minister of MACA to outline some programs and if he would work with the Minister of Health

through the Community Wellness Plan, or with the Ministers of Justice, ITI and Education that would put together a comprehensive youth land centre camp that would support the community wishes.

Mr. Speaker, we would have to explore that further. The Member is asking about a youth centre and now a youth centre on the land, so we would have to explore that a bit more.

I must comment again that the community takes the initial initiative. They approach us; we assist in any way possible, and then we can go from there. But we’d have to explore that a little further. I’m sure this would apply to a youth centre on the land. I would have to look into that and relay that to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Fair enough, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his openness, just as the Minister of Justice talked about the Community Safety Strategy where we’re taking a lead from communities in the Sahtu. So I look forward to the Minister possibly looking at this concept and getting a brief update as to his discussions with the other Ministers on this concept. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, again, it would be an initiative of the community to come forward to us with what their plans are. We can’t put a plan together and go to the communities and say this is what you’re going to do. We leave a lot of the final decision-making up to the community, and when they do that, then we will do what we can to assist them in any way we can.

There are a number of youth programs that we do offer. Maybe their initiative will fit into one of these programs. We don’t know that until they come to us and say this is our plan, how can you assist us, and we’ll go from there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on my colleague Mr. Nadli’s initiative about establishing a community radio initiative, but I want to focus more on Nahanni Butte. I just completed my spring visit there and the community still remains without a radio, either CKLB or CBC.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs how he can assist this community. The radios have ceased working as a result of the flood last year and the anniversary of that flood is June 3

rd.

It’s been a full year and I’d like

to know how the government will be helping the

community restore much needed radio services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is, and I would have to confirm it, but the radio station may have been down before the flood. I will have to confirm that.

I’m not sure if it would fit into any of our programs. Again, I would have to do a little bit of exploring and see if something like this would fit into one of our programs, whether the community may have the ability with the money that they receive from MACA – one of my favourite lines and I know you guys are getting tired of it, but it’s one I keep using. I’m not sure if that falls under the criteria where they may have the ability to do that themselves.

But I will commit to the Member that I’ll follow up on this and see what they’re responsible for and what we can do to assist the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m glad that the Minister wishes to understand it more. I believe I did a Member’s statement in our February/March sitting, and the issue is one of public safety and safety of the community. If there is another incident where there is an emergency, all the radios provide emergency services. So that’s one of the focuses.

I think out of the two radio stations, there was one down before the flood, and as a result of the flood, the other one stopped working. I think the Minister can maybe work with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I know that Mr. Nadli was able to point out that there is a meeting between the Minister and I believe the NCS board to work towards restoring the services in Nahanni Butte. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Members do a very good job of pointing out the fact that these radio stations may be needed during an emergency and I’m reminded of the federal program. We don’t know the details yet. It replaces the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program. There is some funding that should help with this. We don’t know if it would fit the criteria. Once we know the details and if community radio stations who would issue warnings qualified for this, we would be sure that we will try as a department to access some of this money to assist some of these communities to upgrade their radio stations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I know that every time we put out a request before the government, it’s going to be big expenditures, but in this case to replace and get that CKLB up and running was about $7,000. I’m not too sure about the CBC aspect of it, but

those are the numbers we are talking about, if the Minister can use those figures as he talks with his colleagues and works with his department in order to come up with a plan for the community. Thank you.