Bill Braden

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the discussion here and the acknowledgement or confirmation that this is not something that seems to be happening; it is something quite tangible. The Minister has told committee that it’s a growing problem and one we are going to have to deal with. Would the Minister advise or commit to coming back to perhaps standing committees with some outline of what the status of this growing problem is, and perhaps come back to committees with some options on how we can help address it, Madam Chair? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Chairman, with reluctance I'm going to vote for the motion to delete. The amount of information that the Minister's providing is not enough to convince me that for $320,000 we're getting value for money. I really have difficulty accepting a request for this amount here. The information given us originally here to provide funding for planning and the functional program, the new consolidated office complex in Inuvik. It doesn't go so far as to say we're getting detailed drawings or architectural design. That's going to be another part. You know, Mr. Chairman, given the kind of...

You know, Mr. Speaker, we can see this on the back burner for a long time. Mr. Roland told us earlier today of his optimistic reaction to the expert panel on financing. I share that optimism. But there are so many other initiatives that are going to take their time to sort of grind out through the system. Mr. Speaker, I think as one of the Members who is involved in this motion -- I moved this motion last February -- I’d like to press the Premier to see if he could have a look at this again, speak with his northern counterparts, and see if we could put some kind of a time frame on advancing...

Well, Mr. Chairman, I don’t quite know where to go from here. The federal government really has a big hammer on this and the question that we have, I suppose, as the Minister is asking today, is that we take this unanticipated, unrealized, and take it out of general revenue rather than pass it on to the consumer. Is that what the Minister is seeking?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe I am looking for too fine a layer of detail here. There are also increments that the bill proposes to increase some allowances, the cost of doing business for Members at least outside of Yellowknife. Do we have some estimate of what the increment is there, Mr. Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be speaking in favour of the bill with a couple of comments that, like my colleague, I would like to note for the record. As the Minister explained in his opening remarks, these are measures that we are bringing into play not for ourselves or this Assembly, of course, Mr. Chair, but as criteria and conditions I think that will improve the environment for our successors in the 16th Assembly.

Some of the amendments, as Ms. Lee has noted, will adjust for some of the variances and the discrepancies that our out-of-town or out-of-Yellowknife colleagues have experienced...

Mr. Speaker, one of the key ingredients in this is the understanding, support and collaboration of the provinces in Canada. The report by the Council of the Federation really is a striking endorsement of our goals. I wanted to ask the Premier what his plan is for continuing to strengthen that relationship with the provinces, as he says we have done with the federal government, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I would ask, is this really all in Minister Prentice’s hands? I think this is a process that all three territories undertook, as well, in good faith. We made investments in it and I remember considerable discussion among our committees and at levels of this Legislature. Do we have a new northern vision process under Minister Prentice, or is it, in reality, a continuation of the Northern Strategy process that we have already agreed to and already put significant investment in, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the past few minutes I have seen a constituent of mine, Mr. Lee Selleck in the gallery and I would like to welcome him to the Assembly. Thank you.

---Laughter

---Applause

Thank you very much. I appreciate the information. That is all the questions and comments I had, Mr. Chair.