Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just an observation from being part of leadership and negotiations for some time. When two leaders meet, what happens is that there is a spirit and intent, and that’s the spirit of the treaties that have been negotiated for a long time, and it’s based on honesty and integrity. When two leaders meet, they make a pact and an understanding, and when they walk away they ask their staff to implement it, and sometimes the staff or the department doesn’t believe in those decisions, and I think that’s the problem.

Will the Premier revisit his government’s strategy with a view to making headway instead of causing a breakdown of negotiations?

I would be glad to hear any suggestions from the Member. This is the best offer that’s ever been made and it’s been rejected, so we will continue to work through the land claims table.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to this opportunity to get some clarity on some of our power rates here. The cost of living burden continues to weigh down on the everyday family, as we all know and we certainly hear about this. The question really continues to come to me is this McLeod government continuing to do the best that they can, and the question that arises is they’re concerned they’re not. Everybody knows the three components to the power issue, which is generation, distribution and certainly the customer access.

So I guess the question really comes down to, while we continue to squeeze generation and consumer

efficiency is at an all-time high but power rates continue to skyrocket, what is this government doing with the distribution issue of the power rates here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a distribution system that’s been in place for some time. We have the Public Utilities Board that has been operating very effectively and we will continue to follow the policies of this government. From time to time we will review it to see if those policies should continue to be in place. Thank you.

I look to the gallery and my Yukon colleagues when I say this, Yellowknife is number one, and I say this as we have the highest power rate bill, be it Whitehorse, Iqaluit and Northwest Territories. Yellowknife, we have the highest power rate. So, we’re number one. The problem is, I don’t want to be number one anymore, nor does anyone in this city.

So the question now becomes why do we have southern distributors here in the Northwest Territories when we have an option to start squeezing this problem towards a positive solution. We have a southern distributor working here in the Northwest Territories who has an insatiable appetite for profit at a time when people’s cost of living factor has gone through the roof that they can no longer carry.

Would the Premier agree it is time to re-evaluate our distribution policy by maybe closing the door on that problem? Thank you.

I’m not sure what the Member means when he says we’re number one. All of the power and the communities and the rest of the Northwest Territories would be very pleased to have the power rates that we enjoy here in Yellowknife.

As far as power distribution, we manage it very carefully through the Public Utilities Board. Every rate increase goes through a regulatory review process, and as we go forward as a government we have the ability to review our policies to see if they are in our best interest to move away from the existing distribution system. Thank you.

When is it better than now, in this particular case, for us to start reviewing and maybe eliminate the process we have in place? We could eliminate and refine our distribution process by getting rid of this by allowing NWT Power Corporation to manage the power distribution to our communities by getting rid of the third-party process through the franchise agreement.

What could kick that process off, and I want to hear the Premier asking what path and journey can we

take to finally have a true discussion about lowering our power rates because we could lower them 10 cents a kilowatt, in that range, immediately, if we reorganized our power distribution.

I would be very interested in seeing what kind of mathematics he used to come up to that conclusion. As a policy, we decided to go with the existing until such time as we decided to do otherwise. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. A point of order has been called, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to call a point of order on the Member for Hay River South for accusing my last comments as all lies. I can refer to several sections, such as I felt that it’s imputing ill motive and in some ways some might even describe that as insulting, bad language. So we could spend time going through all of these, but they were a statement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mrs. Groenewegen, do you have something to say on the point of order?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I would look to you to say whether my comments were on the record or not. I didn’t have the microphone at the time. I know I’m prone to heckling more than I should in this House so I will retract my comment. I do not believe it was recorded through the official Hansard, but I will retract my heckling comment that I made. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s time that we start working on this particular problem. If I described it as a sandwich, we keep shaving down the two pieces of bread without worrying about what’s in the middle and we’re ignoring this problem. Millions of dollars through the PUB process get acknowledged that turn into profits that go to this southern company. Even the Town of Hay River is saying that they need to do business differently.

So I call upon this government with a little action maybe the Premier could explain to us here clearly, not just to me but all Northerners, how we can review this distribution process so we can work to achieve the same goal, making living affordable here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

I presume the Member has some hard and fast figures that can prove his research in that the price of power will decrease by 10 cents a kilowatt hour, but on this side we don’t have the luxury of making those statements without

thorough review and due diligence. Communities have the authority to decide on their distribution. Hay River has a franchise agreement that will come due in November 2016 and we know that everybody is interested in reducing the cost of living. We will consider what Hay River is doing, we would look at it, taking all of the policy issues into consideration on this very complex issue and there are a number of very complex policy issues that we would have to look at. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last couple of weeks we’ve seen many announcements coming from the executive office setting some new course directions for the 17th Legislative Assembly.

Surprisingly, some of these new plot-a-course settings were the first to be heard of by Members, some escaped the due process of the House and others were never properly vetted by standing committees. So my questions today will be for the Premier.

On January 28, 2015, and with only limited notice to Regular Members, the public was made aware of the creation of a volunteer Mining Industry Advisory Board. This board will apparently advise the government on mine regulations and environmental and social standards. Although this may be a creature of the Mineral Development Strategy, this announcement bypassed the vetting and due process of standing committee. Can the Premier indicate why? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We know the Members opposite read every piece of paper that we present and it was prominently identified in the Mineral Development Strategy. Thank you.

I’m sure committee will be commenting on that one. Again on January 28, 2015, the public was made aware of a meeting between our Premier and Prime Minister Harper describing a discussion on sustainable economic development. Part of this discussion involved the completion of the Mackenzie Valley Highway but, more importantly, an all-weather road into the Slave Geologic Province.

Can the Premier indicate to the House when and by what process has the substantiation for this all-weather road into the Slave Geologic Province ever been discussed with Regular Members of the 17th Assembly? Thank you.

I know he’s a new MLA in this 17th Assembly. It was started talking about it in

the 16th Assembly and it’s been around ever since,

so we’ve been talking about it for at least five years. Thank you.

Thank you. Unfortunately, this was not a priority of the 17th and I can’t make

commitments for the 16th or prior Assemblies.

On January 29, 2015, in keeping with surprises, the executive office announced the GNWT is exploring the feasibility of an energy, transportation and communication corridor study along the Mackenzie Valley. Again, to be clear, this was not for any specific infrastructure project but a new bold direction that did escape the vetting process of the Assembly.

Can the Premier indicate to the House where does this feasibility study fit into any of our current framework or action plans for the 17th Assembly?

Thank you.