I’m certainly looking and being very optimistic as to the solar project in Colville Lake. People up there are looking forward to seeing the benefits. It could certainly reduce the cost of their consumption. There is a lot of money spent on energy, especially with their small co-op store that has a huge power bill every month. We’re certainly looking forward to that project and hopefully that will be duplicated in the other communities.

That’s the goal. Really, it’s the goal for the homeowner either living in public housing or their own private housing is to get a cheap power bill. A lot of complaints from my communities is the amount of money that we spend on good, reliable energy. We want that. When we flick our light, we want to make sure it goes on and stays on. That’s what we pay, the cost, and that’s where I’m wanting to use some of my comments here is to look at ways that we could have ultimately clean energy.

Hydro is one of the cheapest and cleanest energy other than natural gas or things like that. But we have a lot of natural gas in our area. The Norman Wells oilfield burns off a lot of natural gas every day. That flare stack is going off a lot, steady and constant since the ‘30s. I guess that’s my point, is that can we tap into the natural gas and to look at those other customers. If not, have we looked enough with the hydro in Deline? Have we explored it aggressively and persistently to see if this is a possibility with the money that we have?

Certainly, the Minister is correct. You and I and other Members had this discussion on the old becoming new. Going out there and harvesting wood for ourselves and making sure that people in the communities through no matter what can have a wood burning option, a wood stove, a good wood stove, and cut wood, that would certainly cut down a lot of other issues. Do we have that type of incentive so if people want to get out and say yes, I’ll cut a cord of wood? There’s an incentive to go out there to get the wood and to burn it and decrease their use of diesel fuel, because the fuel that we get is coming from outside the Territories, sometimes even outside of Canada, while at the same time we’re sitting on huge reservoirs of oil and gas and we’re not doing too much about it. That’s crazy thinking, I think. Why not use our own resources? Let’s look at that. Let’s not be scared of it and fear, fear itself. Let’s see what we can do for ourselves.

That’s where I want to end, with these energy types of discussions. Let’s start looking at our own resources and not be dependent on foreign oil or foreign gas here.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Your 10 minutes was already up, but I looked at the clock and it said 4:43, and I thought you had four minutes and 43 seconds, so that was a bonus, okay? So I’ll take that as a comment. Thank you. We’ll move on. I’m going to call the page again and people can still put their hand up and speak to it. This is detail remember. This is not general comments anymore.

Finance, deputy minister’s office, not previously authorized, $22.129 million. Total department, not previously authorized, $22.129 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just had one other set of questions here. I’m wondering when the Minister will be purchasing the $20 million worth of diesel fuel for this purpose.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The most immediate one is the 10 percent we’ve talked about and taking advantage of what was budgeted and what we anticipate or know we are going to be paying here in the foreseeable future, leaving us enough room should there be any kind of subsequent increase. If we budget a dollar and we get it at 80 cents a litre, I’d have to ask Mr. Kalgutkar to do the math for me to give us an idea, or Mr. Aumond, to give us an idea, but this is how we’ve accommodated putting this money into conservation was on that gap.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The deputy minister mentioned 25 percent savings, 75 cents instead of a dollar. Just to help the Minister out with that complex math, with a dollar a litre and it’s 80 percent, then that’s 20 percent savings and we’re putting 10 percent into these other initiatives. I guess I’d like to ask the Minister to commit, should these savings be realized, that he bumps up any savings in this amount committed and allocated to renewable energy and energy efficiency such as we’re doing with the 10 percent we are very sure we’re going to get, really make that commitment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The potential for possible savings, I know it’s 20 percent. I just wasn’t quite sure it would be of $2.2 million. We are going to be putting out expressions of interest to do five and 10 megawatts of power here. To actually put the solar on the ground is probably $35 million or so. So we are going to be committing to some very serious investments here in Yellowknife in the coming years as we are going to be up and down the valley as we move to make these critical investments managing our debt limit and those types of things. Yes, there is going to be continued commitment to invest major dollars. I would suggest far and above savings we might realize from this particular low water surcharge. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don’t want to spend any more time on this, Madam Chair, but we’ve been interested before and an expression of interest is not a commitment. An expression of interest is curiosity. We need commitment. We have passed over and over again the opportunity to put in renewable energy to avoid these costs. We could do a much more significant effort here had we taken the sufficient funds last year to put in five megawatts that would have handled at least a third to a half of the monthly demands now forecasted in materials the Minister has provided us with from the Power Corporation

and reduced the need for those dollars this year, so we cannot keep doing that. That’s just a comment. I’m happy to leave it at that.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Finance, deputy minister’s office, not previously authorized, $22.129 million. Total department, not previously authorized, $22.129 million. Agreed?

Agreed. Thank you. Moving on to page 7, Health and Social Services, administrative and support services, not previously authorized, $302,000. Community health programs, not previously authorized, $30,000; nursing inpatient services, not previously authorized, $1.023 million. Total department of Health and Social Services, not previously authorized, $1.355 million. Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I had a question about the nursing inpatient services operation for the Hay River Health Centre. Obviously, I’m pleased to see some of the dollars for this new facility, but I know the demand and the request for a substantial amount more. Can the Minister elaborate on why those positions weren’t approved that we were asking for?

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There was a hard look taken at this, as there are a lot of our expenses as we look at our fiscal challenges, and it was determined that what is before the House is what the Hay River Hospital could make work with the resources that are available. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Bouchard.