HANSARD
Printed and Published by Nova Scotia Hansard Reporting Services
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SUBCOMMITTEE
Ms. Diana Whalen (Chairman)
Mr. Chuck Porter
Mr. Howard Epstein
IN ATTENDANCE:
Mrs. Darlene Henry
Legislative Committee Clerk
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HALIFAX, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2006
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
11:00 A.M.
CHAIRMAN
Ms. Diana Whalen
[The subcommittee members discussed potential witnesses prior to official commencement of the meeting.]
[11:15 a.m.]
MADAM CHAIRMAN: Did you get the long shopping list from the Liberals as well? Did you have a separate list for us today, from the PC caucus? (Interruptions) That was what was left from about a year ago.
If I might, it looks like the PC caucus one is largely different companies, individual companies that we might call, rather than industries as such. I can say from the Liberal perspective, one of the things I really wanted to give a fairly high priority to is the Halifax Regional Municipality and their economic plan, because that had just come out. I think it was last Spring we got a copy of that. It's an extensive report and a lot of consultation was done. HRM accounts for about 50 per cent of the GDP of Nova Scotia.
MR. EPSTEIN: It's 46 per cent.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: Yes. So, as Halifax members, we know that. I think it would be important to give them a chance to talk about what they're doing, and perhaps what the provincial government could do to work with them. I'd like to propose that as the top priority for us, in our caucus, and perhaps number one for me.
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MR. EPSTEIN: I see this overlap with the RDAs. We have that on our list, and I see it's on yours. We brought forward the Electricity Marketplace Governance Committee report from a couple of years ago. Although it was something we had raised earlier, we raise it again in the updated list because it seems to us an important issue that's hanging out there, and it's not clear where it's going. It seems there's a big transformation going on in the electricity sector, and it's going to have a lot of potential impact all around the province. There are a lot of people, for example, in the wind and solar business who would like to get going but don't have a market yet. So that's really what that's about.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: I wondered if there could be an overlap with the Canadian Oil Heat Association. I was thinking of it more as the electricity from a consumer point of view, and again with winter coming, heating is an important thing.
MR. EPSTEIN: I think we want to be focused on this. If we want to talk about the price of energy, that's one thing. Although that's clearly an important issue, what I think is going on is some kind of transformation of what the electricity industry is like in Nova Scotia. This will have a lot of impact on Nova Scotia Power and, of course, on all their customers. We see the fuss now about Stora, we see the fuss about rates, but there is an opportunity to generate electricity by different means.
I know the companies that want to set up wind farms and those that want to go into solar and those that are exploring other things, like tidal and wave and so on, are worried that they don't have a market for it because the Energy Strategy for the province doesn't yet require Nova Scotia Power to buy a huge amount or generate a huge amount of renewables in their portfolio.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: Stand-alone, I understand.
MR. EPSTEIN: It is different - although it's connected to the price that people pay, it's a slightly different focus. The reason it's an economic development issue is that there is an opportunity for people in rural areas, where we're finding some older industries under threat, it's an opportunity for them to move into a new kind of business. It's also economic because there's a question of what's the price that's going to be paid and it's economic because of Nova Scotia Power, which is one of our largest companies and what are they going to do? There is a lot there, so I stand up for it still.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: You explained it well about why it's separate from oil heat.
MR. EPSTEIN: You know I agree with HRM, I think that would be great. I'd like to speak up for the electricity marketplace as one of these, as maybe another one. The RDAs seems to be another one.
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MADAM CHAIRMAN: And I notice as well on the Liberal list, we do have Nova Scotia Business Inc. as well and perhaps they do go hand in hand. I don't know if you find that too much, but I notice on your list you do have NSBI and OED on the same list. I don't know if you would want to have that broad a representation. I'm quite happy, actually, with the RDAs by themselves because there are . . .
MR. EPSTEIN: Yes, me too.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: . . . I think 13, if we have replaced the Western Valley. Okay, so I think that would give us three for the Fall, right there, if we look at October and November and December. We meet early so I'm assuming we'll meet in December as well. Is that right, that's our usual? Are you in agreement with that?
MR. EPSTEIN: So one will be HRM?
MR. CHUCK PORTER: One is HRM.
MR. EPSTEIN: And that's their economic development plan?
MR. PORTER: Yes, number two was . . .
MR. EPSTEIN: The electricity marketplace.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: Yes, and the third would be the RDAs, their association anyway, so they could speak about their efforts, that's good. Do we want to go further into the new year or would we just like to see where we are there?
MR. EPSTEIN: I'd say that those three are going to take us through a little while, but we'll have to turn our minds to plan for the following time. We can turn our minds and we may find that different items have come forward by the time a month or two goes by.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: That's right. One of the things I'd like to do is leave some flexibility.
MR. EPSTEIN: Darlene, would that be enough for you to . . .
MRS. DARLENE HENRY (Legislative Committee Clerk): That's fine - I'm sorry . . .
MADAM CHAIRMAN: Carry on, that's fine, Darlene.
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MRS. HENRY: If we do meet once a month, that leaves us open for those emergency issues that pop up so I was going to ask if we are, indeed, going to meet monthly, leaving us availability for those things.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: Actually, I should make the point that previous to my coming in as chairman, we had gone to every two weeks with the committee and it was because there was a backlog of companies and issues and things that we wanted to do.
MR. EPSTEIN: We had. My recollection of that discussion was that didn't Wayne Gaudet essentially raise the problem of doing that and suggested that we go back to monthly? I kind of remembered that the committee went along with that, with the option of being flexible and going back to every two weeks if we felt that something came along that was sufficiently urgent to push us to that. Is that right?
MRS. HENRY: Yes.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: I think it's worthwhile putting on the record that's our understanding, that we'll meet monthly and then if something exceptional arises, we have the flexibility to schedule another meeting in the interim. Certainly with the issues we deal with here, there are often things that emerge, like the Digby ferry, where it becomes really time-sensitive to talk about it. So I think that's a good way to go and we should just plan on it monthly for the time being.
MR. EPSTEIN: Okay, so what are we looking at for . . .
MADAM CHAIRMAN: It's October 10th, I think.
MRS. HENRY: Yes, but now you understand that's the day after Thanksgiving.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: Okay, would we prefer to move it? It's not an issue for some of us, but I mean I have two others on my committee who have to travel.
MR. PORTER: October 10th is fine for me. That's our regular Tuesday?
MADAM CHAIRMAN: It's a Tuesday morning, it's just that your Monday is a holiday, that's all.
MR. PORTER: I guess I'm close enough, as well, it's fine for me. I'm an hour out.
MR EPSTEIN: I think it's okay with us, as well. We have Vicki and Leonard, as well. Vicki would be travelling, but I don't think it's problematic. I think that's all right. We can always find a substitute, I guess, if not.
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MADAM CHAIRMAN: We did say that date at the end of our last meeting. We did announce October 10th, so I would like to stay there. In terms of witnesses for the HRM, I think you'll find that it will have to be the Greater Halifax Partnership that would have to be there. They were very involved. They had a committee that actually did all of the work. A lot of it involved the chamber of commerce, so we might need to go to the committee members who devised it.
MR. EPSTEIN: I think essentially, yes, we could do that, or essentially call HRM and ask them, who are the right people. I'm sure . . .
MADAM CHAIRMAN: Who can best speak to this, now that it has been developed.
MR. EPSTEIN: Absolutely.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: Certainly there was a big volunteer committee that helped put it together, and Greater Halifax Partnership was involved. I like the idea of asking them, at this point in time, who's responsible for it now.
MR. EPSTEIN: Yes, with a preference at the staff level.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: Yes, we don't want it to be political.
MR. PORTER: I would ask that we send our notices out quite early. With a minister now sitting on this committee, I think the notification time should be as much as we can possibly give them, that would be good with Minister Streatch sitting on this committee. I'm sure her schedule is . . .
MRS. HENRY: The week before is the normal practice.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: I think we can say, definitely, we're having the meeting on October 10th.
MR. PORTER: Yes, all I'm saying is we could pop something out.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: The witnesses we're going to have may not be determined, but we could send an e-mail today saying it's going to be the economic plan, with witnesses to be announced. If that's a concern of Minister Streatch, then we could certainly do that.
MR. PORTER: Without her here, I'm not speaking for her, but I would imagine, I know her schedule is very busy, and if we hope to get her here, it would be wise.
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MR. EPSTEIN: A perfectly good point.
MADAM CHAIRMAN: So I'll ask for us to be adjourned, then.
We are adjourned.
[The subcommittee adjourned at 11:25 a.m.]
