Yes, the indication I have from the department is it would be completed in 2014. I would be pleased to meet with the community to advise them of that as well.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I briefly alluded to in my Member’s statement, the population of the Northwest Territories is declining. This presents problems on many fronts for us as a government. I’d like to direct my question to the Minister of Finance and ask him if he has, and I’m sure he has… I mean, I have my theories about why the population is going down, but I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance if his department has done some extensive analysis of this situation and what kinds of reasons are emerging for this decrease in population.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of areas that have been a source of persistent concern in regard to the issue that the Member raises. Things like the fly-in/fly-out population, things like our own vacancy rate, things like the amount of students that we pay to go to school, as the Member indicated in her opening comments, that we don’t recruit back here. We need to do a better job. We’ve put in place an immigrant Nominee Program, as well, that we believe needs to be improved and beefed up so that it can, in fact, help address some of the many jobs across government, not only across government but across the Northwest Territories, including industries that are currently going begging. Those are sort of four major areas.

The Minister of Finance cites many of the obvious reasons why our population is going down. I was just wondering: within the government, in order to come up with some creative ways to address this problem, who will be taking the lead role in addressing this? Like I said in my Member’s statement, we can be very optimistic and excited about the future of the Northwest Territories, but the fact is we are going to be challenged in many ways if our population continues to decline.

The Premier has given me the responsibility of being the chair of the Economic and Employment Development Committee of Cabinet, and this issue falls under the mandate of that committee, so I will be chairing that committee, and the deputy minister of Finance will be chairing the committee of deputies. If the Member would be patient for one day, in the budget address I would provide greater clarity as to the intent, how to proceed on this particular issue.

I’ve been here 19 years. I guess I can wait one day to hear what the Minister

has to say. I think there are some very good ideas out there, definitely from this side of the House, probably from some people in the public who could participate with us in an exercise to look at how we can address the situation.

The Minister mentioned the vacancy in our public service. Just in our employ, or within our purview there are approximately 800 vacant positions that are not filled, so there are many, many fronts on which we can work.

I’d like to ask the Minister, how far will he cast his net of acquiring assistance in helping to come up with initiatives that will address this situation?

We see this as a territory-wide issue, and once again, tomorrow as I present the budget, in the budget we articulate what our thinking is and our intent to involve Northerners across the board, and of course, in this House we’ll commit to full engagement of the committees and the Members opposite as we look at ways to address this issue in a constructive way.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have quite a few ideas of my own on this. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s budget address tomorrow, and I look forward to working with him on this.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister of Finance, the money man, on the question with the residents of Norman Wells. They are going to be shutting off their natural gas by Imperial Oil and converting their utilities, and there are quite a few families in Norman Wells that just are doing their best; they don’t have the extra 15 or 12 thousand dollars to make a full conversion for their residence.

Is the Minister of Finance working with his colleagues or the Town of Norman Wells to look at the number of families that are going to require the additional 10, 12, 15 thousand dollars to make that conversion? Right now it’s causing a lot of stress for the families and I want to ask the Minister, is there a plan within this government to help the residents in Norman Wells with the conversion for this important thing they have to do with their house?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been involved, as a government, with Norman Wells now for a number of years as we have worked towards this reality that is coming with natural gas. We have built into the budgets of Arctic Energy Alliance and Environment and Natural Resources a number of fairly significant rebate programs, assistance programs for conversions and those types of things that are there to assist in these circumstances. I will also go back to the Department of ENR, based on the Member’s concern, and ask and check to see what type of concerns and discussions we’ve had specifically of late with any residents of Norman Wells about the particular issue that the Member has raised, to see what the circumstances are. Thank you.

I would ask the Minister also if this could be done as quickly as possible, because there are families, people in Norman Wells who are looking at the conversion. Right now they are saying, who is helping us? Which government is there? Imperial Oil is giving a little bit of a hand, but yet they are left with the bulk of the cost of the conversion.

Can the Minister come up with some solutions as soon as possible? For example, maybe setting up some loans through the Housing Corporation office. We have to come up with some solutions, so I want to ask the Minister, can this be done within this session? Then we can give the people in Norman Wells some hope and some support. They need our help.

Given the wonders of our communications system, as we speak in this House the Member can rest assured that staff are making notes, tracking the discussion here, and I’ll commit to the Member to report back to him before the end of this month, definitely before the end of session, so that we can have a discussion about what are the particulars and what is currently in place and what gaps there may be. Thank you.

I certainly look forward to the speed of light communication that we have with today’s modern technology.

I want to ask the Minister, once we have looked and identified the gaps, we look at the residents and the people of Norman Wells. They say they are short $10,000 or $12,000. Will we have the means? Can the Minister put together a funding project, a budget somewhere saying that will help them so that they will not be hurt so much financially? That’s what I’m looking for, is somewhat of a commitment so the residents of Norman Wells can know that the government here is looking to help them on the conversion issue.

Mr. Speaker, as a government we have invested a significant amount of resources to start addressing this issue

and we will continue to provide that support. I’ve made a commitment to the Member and I will honour that commitment. We will share that information and we will have a further more informed discussion. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly appreciate the commitment the Minister is making in this House for the residents of Norman Wells. I also ask the Minister if he would be willing, when some sort of a plan is in place, that he come to the town of Norman Wells and present this plan on how we are going to help the residents of Norman Wells with the conversion as to what requirements they need and what programs are available to them, or what type of loans we will give them as a government. Also, I will ask the Minister if he can inform his federal counterpart. Where is the federal government on this issue, in terms of helping the people of Norman Wells?

Of course, we will commit as a government, as a department to ensure that the people of Norman Wells are fully informed and conversant as to what is happening. In fact, they are key players that need to be involved and consulted, as well, on an ongoing basis as they have been to date. We want to continue that relationship.

In regards to the federal government, I will double check with the department once again, but my recollection is, if I look around the landscape, I see Norman Wells, I see the territorial government and I don’t see a lot of presence from the federal government on this particular issue. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.