Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for Mr. Roland as the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat and the workforce for the GNWT. Mr. Speaker, the affirmative action policy that our government has, I mentioned earlier, was passed in 1989, as one of its provisions the creation and operation of the Northwest Territories Affirmative Action Advisory Committee. It sounds like a pretty useful organization, considering the issues we’re facing now. I wanted to ask the Minister, Mr. Speaker, what is the status of this committee and what is its current mandate? Thank you...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps that's a discussion we can have in another forum. I guess I would ask the Minister now, based on the principle, the idea that we have some $21 million in net book value in infrastructure that is, in effect, providing a subsidy to those customers. If we take the principle that government as a whole is assisting a certain category of people, despite and by virtue of where they live, and that if we're going to accept this as the kind of subsidy that our government wants to provide, then why don't we consider it in that large basket? It's more the principle...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleague Mr. Villeneuve, the aspect of age and residency is not the only area of concern. There are aspects here…In fact, I have a recent example from a constituent arguing that she was consistently denied opportunities because she was overqualified for so many jobs. We have many areas of the policy that cause us difficulty. The Minister said a paper by this fall. I am wondering if he could outline any more detail about the process of this and how other committees or employees can take part in and have input into this review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That's right, we did it. Mr. Chairman, one thing that I think is worth keeping in mind with the petroleum products division is it's my understanding -- correct me if I'm wrong -- that while the division is mandated to certainly recover the cost of the product and the cost of overhead and operations, the cost of the infrastructure of the tank farms and all the ensuring liabilities and environmental work and things that go along with it, are not recovered. They are absorbed by the government at large. That has been my understanding of the way we set up our PPD. Is that essentially still the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for Mr. Roland, as the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, the workforce of the Government of the Northwest Territories and, further, the affirmative action policy and our human rights policy, Mr. Speaker.

A constituent of mine has brought forward a scenario, whereby her age and her place of birth are apparent barriers to her getting an equal opportunity for a job in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, I took this situation to the government some time ago and I am wondering if the Minister could...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I recall, I think that was taken care of in last year's annual appropriation. Now that the Minister reminded me it was in the stabilization fund, that was where the debt was written off. If he could just confirm that, and that happened a year ago. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One more question in this area. The Minister mentioned some 66 people or so that has been an historic average over three years. Related to the capacity of the centre, is that number of remand clients…What is the percentage capacity that they would take up over the period of the year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Detail. Detail.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Hay River remand situation has received a lot of air time in the Assembly in the last few days, to the extent that a lot of the detail, I guess, has really gone over or under or around me. But I have tried to look at this in the sense of what are we doing, what kind of an impact are we having on the delivery of essential justice services to a community and to a region of the Northwest Territories? The arguments that the Minister has made, Mr. Chairman, in favour of the amount of money that could be saved, where the service could be relatively easily and...

Thank you. The scenario there was better than I might have imagined. I can only say that I do look forward to the business plan. Related to that, Mr. Chairman, are the ample signals, the very clear and loud signals that we’re getting about the anticipated increase in crime and the need for policing caused by super-development, the huge developments that we’re on the cusp of. The proponents for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline at a workshop in Inuvik in December made no bones about it that with the level of activity, the number of workers concentrated over a relatively short period of time, that...