Bill Braden

Okay. So I'm not belabouring the cost of this, but one thing that I think should be realized here as we go about approving this is that it does amount to a fairly direct subsidy to the people in those communities who purchase the fuels and oils from PPD. This is fine; this is all out in the open. But in terms of reconciling this as a subsidy, I'm wondering if the government is including this in its overall review of subsidies and social programs. Mr. Chairman, we have a review going on right now. I believe there are some 17 different social programs; they range from Seniors' Fuel Subsidy...

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...

Okay. That sort of takes care of my next question, Mr. Chairman, was who approved this decision. I think it was approved right here, so that will take care of that question.

---Interjection

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is an area of interest to me on an annual basis to see how we’re doing with the provision of petroleum services to communities that do not have private sector infrastructure. This is the kind of thing that government should do to step in and make sure that services are supplied safely and adequately. There are a couple things, Mr. Chairman, in the business plan document that refer to this, and in a couple of paragraphs there is a discussion that after several years now of debate over whether or not to try to privatize or turn PPD over to some other agency, the...

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. Chairman. To the topic of the proposed new courthouse; this, too, has been something that has occupied a fair amount of the committee’s time. The expenditure of this amount of money on one facility, no matter what it is for or where it is going, is a very big piece of change for us.

Through this discussion, I have been more and more convinced of the need for this and the program that the department has laid out for bringing this project through. I saw efforts that the department had tried to do something collaboratively with the City of Yellowknife on an available piece of...

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...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yesterday we had quite a good debate on a number of aspects of justice and the administration of justice in the Territories. Our motion, Madam Chair, had a focus and a purpose on it in that it sought to encourage the government to do more to enable communities to be more involved and to take greater responsibility in the administration and in the sentencing, the accountability on the part of the offender and hopefully the restoration of that person back into the good books of the community, if you will.

The aspect of this that has intrigued me for some time, Madam...

Thank you, Madam Chair. With your indulgence and committee’s, I would like to recognize two people in the gallery who have joined us this afternoon. They are constituents of mine in Great Slave. Fifty years ago tomorrow, Madam Chair, Tom and Muriel Eagle got married. They are planning a celebration or one is being planned for them for tomorrow. I am very pleased to welcome them to the Assembly and appreciate this opportunity to recognize them and wish them many, many more years. Thank you, Madam Chair.

---Applause