The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Good afternoon, colleagues. Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise at the earliest opportunity after reviewing unedited Hansard from yesterday to raise a point of order against Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Miltenberger said to me in my proposed amendment to a motion, and I quote from yesterday’s unedited Hansard, page 50: “…if it’s not outright duplicitous, it’s friggin’ double standard. And I withdraw the friggin’.”

Mr. Speaker, House Rule 23 states it’s against orders of the House, under (i), to impute false or hidden motives to another Member; under (j), charges another Member with uttering a deliberate falsehood; and, finally, (k), uses abusive or insulting language of a nature likely to create disorder, which, Mr. Speaker, speaks for itself.

I am not on the warpath here and this is not about the use of the word “friggin’,” which the Member is known to use and then apologize for at the same time, something that’s apparently an acceptable practice in this House. It’s about the word “duplicitous.” The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines duplicitous as “deceptive in words or actions.” It provides the synonyms including “bent, crooked, deceptive, double dealing, dishonest, fast, fraudulent, guileful, rogue, shady, sharp, shifty, underhand and underhanded.” Rule 23(h) applies here.

Double standard is defined as: “a situation in which two people, groups, et cetera, are treated very differently from each other in a way that is unfair to one of them.” My amendment, which I had proposed to the motion and speaking to it, was accommodating to different views perhaps, but showing a double standard? I don’t think so, Mr. Speaker, and Rule 23(i) would apply here.

During debate, several Members, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Moses, for example, possibly others, suggested that the current planned date of the election was something we should stick to. Others wanted the longer period of change, but recognized the value of flexibility within the month of October 2015 to coordinate the NWT election with other elections planned for October 2015.

My intent was clearly honourable and meant to be an accommodating compromise between these two views, no matter how satirical or ironic a person might be listening to it. To call it duplicitous and a double standard is wrong.

I ask the Speaker to seek correction of this injustice for the dignity of the House and the people of Weledeh. Mahsi.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve looked at the Hansard and I, as well, looked up the definition of duplicitous and it says, “deliberately deceptive.” I do say that if it’s not outright duplicitous, it’s a friggin’ double standard. I withdrew the “friggin’” and I apologize for that once again.

I will give the Member the benefit of the doubt, even though methinks he doth protest too much, that it wasn’t deliberately duplicitous and I will withdraw that comment, that phrase. However, I do think the use of the term “double standard” is entirely within the acceptable bounds of parliamentary language. Thank you.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley, do you accept the apology?

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to accept that. As I said, I’m not on a warpath here and I’m not going to worry about the colours the Minister wants to put on it. He can couch it as he wants, but I think he knows he was in error. We’re talking about the dignity of the House and I accept the apology. Mahsi.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you. Let’s not waste any more of the House’s time now. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu Minister of Transportation

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to provide the House with an update on the success of the Department of Transportation’s on-line driver and motor vehicle services.

As you’ll recall from my statement earlier this session, residents can now register to receive e-mail reminders to renew a driver’s licence, general identification card, vehicle registration, driver’s medical, appointments, and commercial vehicle inspection notifications. They can also renew their vehicle registration anytime on-line. This is already making our government an industry leader; other jurisdictions have contacted us to find out more about how they could implement similar systems.

Mr. Speaker, our service centres are now able to deliver client services better than ever, while remote communities can now connect to services where none were previously available. The department has also provided training to community government service officers so they may effectively help elders and other clients gain access to the services on-line.

In the first month, Mr. Speaker, residents from 27 communities have already taken advantage of our on-line services. Over a thousand clients have subscribed to the e-notification system and half of all registrations are already being done on-line. That has resulted in 2,500 e-mail notifications and over 3,000 on-line registrations in the first month.

This is a significant reduction in red tape. Residents are getting the service they need, when they need it.

We are already working on additional improvements like the ability to schedule appointments and obtain drivers’ abstracts on-line.

Mr. Speaker, on-line service delivery is part of the GNWT’s Service Innovation Strategy, which supports effective and efficient government.

The department looks forward to continuing this success through ongoing improvements including the replacement or renewal of drivers’ licences, commercial vehicle services and address changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Colleagues, before we go on, there was no point of order after the apology. We’re just moving on now.

Item 3, Members’ statements. Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I continue to be concerned about our Aboriginal people and employees who are not getting jobs and advancement opportunities in our government.

Earlier in this sitting, I spoke about how the new shared services department made it difficult for employees to advance but treated long-service employees like new hires. We have to take pride, Mr. Speaker, as we say we do, to support our Aboriginal employees as they advance in our government.

I also have many Aboriginal employees who have been trying to be hired by our GNWT, without success. They are upset because they are qualified, experienced and ready to work, yet consistently they get screened out because there were no suitable candidates. That is very frustrating.

Potential new employees are also subject to screening tests each and every opportunity they apply for. They somehow fail and when they get screened, they have no opportunity to review the test or to see it or have ownership of it. It’s all behind the manager’s desk and saying you failed because of this or this. They never actually get to see it. They know they have the experience, training and skills for the job they are applying for.

I believe that we have to apply every effort to assure we have Aboriginal managers and executives in our government. We also must ensure that our representative workforce exceeds the 30 percent we have been at for the past 10 years, Mr. Speaker.

Later on I will have questions for the Minister of Human Resources. Thank you.

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Constituents are saying their home heating and power bills are higher than they’ve ever been. Just last week I tabled a petition from residents of the NWT calling for more action on climate change.

Government expense is increasing with increasing damage to infrastructure. We all know that oil is just going to get more expensive and that climate change is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It is our dependence on fossil fuels that is creating this crisis.

The Chinese character for crisis is a combination of the symbols for danger and opportunities. Today I’d like to stress the opportunities we have.

In a January newspaper I read, Superior Propane was introducing micro-combined heat and power units. These systems provide both heat and power at 90 percent efficiency instead of the usual 28 percent efficiency that most community diesel generators run at. This great idea is something that a few Northerners like the Snowshoe Inn in Fort Providence and Gruben’s Camp in Tuktoyaktuk have been doing for years. With new quieter technology we can see micro-combined heat and power use throughout the territory. If the Power Corporation got onto this, they would have a new source of revenue, selling both power and heat to large buildings like schools, northern stores, arenas and so on.

The Public Utilities Board has just made a decision to implement net metering, or close to it. Net metering, or the sale of home-generated renewable electricity into community grids, has great potential for reducing power bills. Northern businesses are gaining experience in installing these solar panel systems, recognizing a business opportunity here too.

Homeowners have been seeing the top savings of wood pellet heat for years now. A recent study by the Arctic Energy Alliance showed that we could use 20-foot shipping containers to bring affordable pellets into all communities with barge access right to Tuk, in fact.

Lentil farmers in Saskatchewan use containers to ship their lentils overseas and we can use the same methods to ship wood pellets.

Combined with the plans for a wood pellet plant in Enterprise, this could make Hay River the bio-energy hub of the whole Western Arctic.

All of the opportunities I’ve just mentioned make financial sense right now, Mr. Speaker. We’ve got local businesses stepping up and taking the lead and we need to support them.

We know the price of oil is not going to be coming down.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Mahsi

---Unanimous consent granted

Bob Bromley Weledeh

We know the price of oil is not going to be coming down. We know that President Obama will soon put a price on carbon emissions and Canada will follow. The only question is when, not if. Many in our business community are responding to these opportunities and so are many home and building owners.

To reduce the cost of living, we need to find ways to support the rapid rollout of these opportunities to everyone in the North. Mahsi.