Bill Braden

Abused, disabused. We’re being badly let down in this case. That is the point I want to make. I want to ask the Minister, does he accept that the normal conventions and the rules that we understand we’re operating under here were not followed in this case? Does the Minister accept that the rules were not followed in this case?

Okay. So $2.4 million being shifted from an approved project for Yellowknife to a different community is within Cabinet’s tolerance of saying we don’t have to bother telling anybody. Is that true? Have I got that right?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Respecting committee’s normal process here of saving detailed or specific questions to that item on the page, I will not be talking specifically to the Territorial Treatment Centre project, but it sets the context for the questions that I have and that is related to what Mr. Ramsay was speaking about and questions earlier today in the House.

We have protocols that we have worked hard to develop in this House and in this consensus approach that we try to take here. As plans are formulated, developed and eventually approved in this Assembly and anticipated and expected...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We are about two months into the new fiscal year now. There must have been some months in the past fiscal year that the government had new information and changed its mind about something but didn't tell us. Will the Minister tell this Assembly today what was it, several months ago obviously, that caused Cabinet to change its mind about the investment in the TTC here in Yellowknife? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

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...

Mr. Chairman, I move we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a general question about the fiscal year and I hope it is appropriate that I ask it now. When we set up each year's budget, Mr. Chairman, there is a supplementary reserve and the question that I wanted to put to the Finance Minister now that we are cleaning up the books from the past fiscal year, how did we do on our supplementary reserve? Did we come in sort of on or under budget? Have we exceeded it? What is the year-end report on our supplementary reserve? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Roughly $2 million in fees out of a total $10 million exposure. Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, how much of that $2 million in fees is staying with northern-based companies; you know, receivers or auditors? Can we at least say that we are retaining some of this here? Hopefully most if not all of it, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To the appropriation here regarding our loss on the diamond turnover here, I guess it really illustrates that this is a new enterprise in Canada and a risky one. There was a quick, steep learning curve. Perhaps is has plateaued a little bit now, but as we can see with these numbers here, Mr. Chairman, our government is still learning and obviously learning the hard way, the very hard way, about going into these kind of ventures.

As an MLA here in the city and in the territory, Mr. Chairman, I am a supporter of governments going into areas where private enterprise...