The operative word at this point is it “could.” There are court proceedings that are underway; there’s discussion between the governments as well as following through the process as it’s laid out for this type of proceedings. That is part of the discussion that has to be resolved.

We’re engaged

in discussions with the Government of Canada over the potential that they could be filing for bankruptcy, and abandonment of the mine could lead to an agreement to transfer the mine to Canada.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are issues with the Cantung Mine. They’ve filed for creditor protection and there’s a lot of work underway with the involved governments to work through the process of what that would mean to make sure that we protect our interests. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to, of course, make the case that there is no point of privilege. What we are dealing with here is the fourth year of a drought. We are dealing with the circumstance of extreme weather that has put enormous potential burden on the people of the Northwest Territories at a time when the Assembly wasn’t in session or wasn’t with committee sitting. Yet, we had indicated clearly in the letter of August 31st that we would be bringing this

forward for final decision in this House.

As the government, we are required to act in the best interests of the people of the Northwest Territories. In this case the question was, do we allow the rates to go up because the Public Utilities Board wanted to know what was happening with the charges with low water? Do we let the rates go up 24 percent, or do we intercede to protect the cost of living and protect Northerners from this extreme weather event?

As a government, we acted as a government should, in the best interests of the people of the Northwest Territories. We notified the committee; we honoured

our protocols; and the Member, of course, has that final say here in this House in this session. If it’s determined that we do not have the support of the House for that supplementary appropriation, then the money won’t be spent and the rates will go up 24 percent.

We’ll have that discussion. We have nothing

but the highest regard for the operating of this House, just as we have extreme responsibility as government, as legislators, to respond to critical events in a timely way, in a way that protects their interests and our interests, which is making sure that the cost of living doesn’t go up so high that it makes life in the Northwest Territories unaffordable.

So, there was no impairment of freedom of speech. There was no attempt to obstruct the final decision of this House, which will be to vote on that particular amount of money, and the reason it was brought forward in the interest of the people of the Northwest Territories by the government acting in a timely way at a time when there were no committees sitting, there was no opportunity to wait that long because we had to respond and reply. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents, entitled “Inter-activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 for the Period April 1, 2014, to March 31, 2015,” “Program Review Office Annual Report, June 2014” and “Executive Summary: Program Review Office Annual Report 2014.” Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Where the distributor is ATCO, and that’s four communities. Thank you.

The Territorial Power Support Program is geared more for residential tenants. This is a special arrangement between the two distributors and, in fact, in Hay River it is in addition to this subsidy program through the thermal communities, Hay River as well, because their rates are 30 percent higher than their neighbours. They get about $360,000 a year subsidy, as well, to be paid by the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

There are four thermal communities where the distributor of power is Northland Utilities, ATCO, and in those four communities there’s a subsidy program that is funded by the Government of the Northwest Territories to make sure that the NUL rate that the customers pay is the same as the NTPC thermal rate. So, you have the two distributors and the government subsidizes to make sure that people across the Northwest Territories are treated equally when it comes to buying power in their communities, and that requires a subsidy, in this case, of half a million dollars a year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That fund is a Government of the Northwest Territories fund that is set up to subsidize the power rates in the NUL thermal communities, of which there are four, to subsidize those rates down to the NTPC thermal community rate and that subsidization is about half a million dollars a year of government money into the NUL subsidy of their rates. Thank you.