Bill Braden

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for the Minister of Finance and this is in relation to the decision to move the Territorial Treatment Centre to Hay River. Madam Speaker, this Assembly in the last fiscal year, 2004-05, approved an expenditure for the Territorial Treatment Centre here in Yellowknife. I wonder if the Minister could give us a bit of background. What was the amount of money that was approved and what was the status of that project as approved by this Assembly for the last fiscal year? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Chairman, I am afraid I won’t oblige some of my colleagues with letting this one go quite yet. This motion is proposed, from my point of view, for a number of reasons. We have had considerable dialogue here over many days, every day of this session, and I am not going to spend any more time going over ground in any detail. I am going to try to give some highlights though, Mr. Chairman.

When I first offered some remarks in a media interview for this, I indicated support for the idea as has been mentioned that was brought before committee and has been attached to the need for upgrading this...

On this line of questioning, Mr. Chair, I am looking at part of the Financial Administration Act I believe under FMBS’s authority here regarding budget adjustments and transfers. This is a guideline or a set of rules that was created in November 2003, not that long ago. Copies are being produced and will be circulated shortly, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Lee pointed out a requirement on item 5.4 d) that says, "When a department makes any adjustment to a capital project that significantly affects the scope…$100,000 or 20 percent…the responsible Minister will advise the appropriate MLA or Standing Committee...

You know, okay, I’m really trying to keep an open mind and an open pair of ears on this, but, Mr. Chairman, the department asked for permission to spend $2.4 million in Yellowknife. It could have well been any other project, any other community. Then along came, for whatever reason, a change in plan, but nothing was said. We approved that project to happen in Yellowknife. Now they’re coming back without any prior information or notice or advisories to us at all and saying we want to re-approve the same project -- in fact, for more money, almost 50 percent more money -- in a different...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For our discussion this afternoon, I don’t have that manual at hand. Maybe I can sort of narrow this down a little bit. Are there elements of timing, like when a department knows that something is going to be off schedule by so many months or perhaps it will have to be deferred to the next year, maybe it’s been cancelled, is there a time frame that says this one we had better raise a flag and send a message out there? For instance, is there a dollar amount that says this program is off by a certain percentage or dollar amount and that is the trigger? Could the Minister...

Okay. I have the picture on the process here, but I am really looking for the substantiation, Madam Speaker, and the reason that Cabinet accepted the proposal from Health and Social Services, Madam Speaker, without looking for other options or other viable proposals for the use the Dene K'onia facility; obviously a good building, but we have learned requiring substantial new renovations. Was there no thought of looking for other options by which this facility could be utilized? Why was the TTC centre seemingly, Madam Speaker, automatically chosen for this task? Thank you.

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. I will continue with questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services on the issue of the TTC. Madam Speaker, tenacity and perseverance are very much skills to be admired at the ministerial level. That’s one of the reasons I had confidence in making sure that Mr. Miltenberger went in there and I still have confidence in him and his capacity. You know something, Madam Speaker, flexibility and having an open mind are qualities that are equally important in having a Minister there and this is where I would like to see the Minister demonstrate this quality.

The...

We have established a convention and a belief as part of the process of consensus that we will work with each other on significant changes like this. I will say it again and again and again, we were denied the access, involvement and input to this kind of process in this decision. It was, indeed, something that was out there as a very viable idea. We came back into this House just last week and we find out that this is a done deal. This is where this government has let us down and it’s letting this community down. The government must rescind its desire or its program to move this facility...

Madam Speaker, we really are at a standoff at this point. We must come back to the whole premise of when a major change is made to a piece of social delivery or piece of social delivery infrastructure, that there are significant consequences. The Minister will not accept this, but we are seeing and hearing an overwhelming body of information and very sincere expressions from professionals about what this will cause. Madam Speaker, our point to the Minister has been to show us the plan, to show that the department understands and is knowledgeable about the consequences. We have not seen that...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. For some great coincidence our exchange students who are in Yellowknife this year are nicely divided among all seven Yellowknife ridings. In my riding of Great Slave, I would like to introduce Mr. Scott Alltree from New Zealand who is hosted by the Miller family.

---Applause

Welcome, Scott.