Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think Mr. Ramsay has raised a flag on many of the same concerns or issues that I had with this. I am not going to object to these. This is a consequence of running our government as much as any businessperson or homeowner faces a consequence of keeping the fuel tank topped up.

I guess one area that I might ask about and I hope I am not duplicating something Mr. Ramsay has asked about, but are we trying to contract or buy forward with any of our fuel supplies, for any of our communities or major departments or do we more or less buy the fuel as and when needed at...

Mr. Speaker, what does the Minister see as the biggest barriers that we face in terms of trying to turn this really shameful statistic around? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s what I’m trying to get a handle on. What I’m hearing is through the social programs Minister you’ve identified a problem and you’re taking what appears to be some really proactive action on it. Is this something that through the course of the year you’ll be able to come back to, say Social Programs committee, and see where to go on this? I guess, Mr. Chairman, if we’ve identified a problem and we’re starting to address it how are we going to be able to manage it? Or is this just the start of another social dependency that even though we recognized it for...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Statistics over the last few years, Mr. Speaker, have shown virtually no change in our rates of children living in low income situations, so I would like to ask the Minister responsible for these programs in our government, Mr. Dent, a pretty straightforward question. Why does child poverty persist here in the NWT in the midst of so much activity and so much wealth? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Indeed I think committee is familiar with the process. It’s fairly complex and a big piece of work. I guess I’m wondering, should we anticipate further financial consequences or is most of the work remaining of a procedural nature? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories is blessed with the highest increase in gross domestic product in Canada. Our per capita income is the envy of Canada. But, Mr. Speaker, the distribution of this wealth is so widespread that from the top to the bottom they are a universe apart.

Mr. Speaker, 15 percent of tax filers in the year 2002 reported incomes of under $25,000. Now government has a duty to respond and redistribute that wealth and help to put it into the hands and pockets of the people who need it most. Indeed we do, we have done so, Mr. Speaker. In the last...

So there is no fixed term and renewal contract on this. Is it sort of at pleasure then? How does that work? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the information and, yes, we have had a fairly good exchange about this as committee. From what I picked up on this, the department has recognized and taken action to make better utilization of our own facilities here at Stanton and see if we can do something, and I hope something quite significant, about reducing what the Minister said is potentially as many as 1,800 bed days that we did not need to send to Capital Health but, of course, ended up paying for. The Minister mentioned that this has been in effect for some months now. I’m wondering if Mr...

Madam Chair…

Very briefly, Mr. Chair, just to set the context. In committee’s review of the budget and the draft mains, we were acutely aware, of course, of the changes and the impacts that were to happen and, in fact, did happen as a result of Ottawa’s uptake on the NWT’s agenda. The Premier should take no small amount of credit in that. But we also were well briefed and quite appreciative of the reliance that we now have on these panels, the Expert Panel on Equalization and the Council of the Federation panel on fiscal imbalance. They kind of have a lot of our fiscal future and wellbeing in their...