Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Were there any other contributions or assistance from other agencies of this government to this business? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I am going to ask one more question with regard to this and I think I have had my share of time on this. On the accountability factor, we’ve been discussing the onus that is on our people, on our staff, our officers, but I am also wondering about the onus that is on the politicians. The ability or opportunity, sometimes the temptation that there might be for a politician or Minister to apply influence on a certain application is a well-known part of how government and politics operates. It’s a test of our system. To what degree do our processes guard against that kind of thing...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The discussion that my colleagues and the Ministers have had has helped to illustrate some of the general aspects of how we monitor and manage the flow of contributions and loans to all sorts of different organizations in the NWT. It’s helpful, of course, and positive to see that we’ve taken steps to tighten up the way we manage these things and that hopefully there will be less and less of this kind of thing happening. I think it’s useful, for the record, to put some detail around a couple of these cases just to illustrate and to probe what went wrong in some cases...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for the advice on procedure here. To the aspect of accountability and how we hold our own staff and our own officers accountable for these programs, I want to reiterate, Mr. Chairman, I’m not engaging in seeking out or searching out individuals. However, on a go-forward basis, what levels of accountability will be contained in our new third-party accountability framework that will hold our own people to the task of watching and monitoring and reporting on these contribution programs? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I take up the example that my colleague Mr. Zoe raised, I guess as an illustration of our approach. Of course, it does make sense to have limitations on the amount of support that taxpayers' money goes into in a given household. We have to have some way of measuring and keeping some measure of sound management on this kind of thing. Does it really amount to helping people, or have we simply designed, got our system designed, so that it works very well for us, as legislators and budgeters and policy people, or have we really designed something that looks at this through the eyes...

Okay. So 1997, we are really going back. We are going back seven years. It seems to have taken a long time to bring that piece of work forward for management here as a write-off.

Does the department have all the documentation related to these files here, including the loan or contribution made to the Metis Nation, as well? Is all our documentation in place there? Because of the nature of these two organizations, obviously they’re related. The nature of the contribution and the request of the project are obviously related. Was there any crossover here in terms of the board of directors or the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question is directed to Mr. Dent, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Item numbers 8 and 9, I would like to talk about these two together. They refer to debts owed by the Metis Heritage Association and the Metis Nation of the Northwest Territories through accounts of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. They total about $120,000. The first one for the Metis Heritage Association is for $84,000, and to the Metis Nation of $35,000. The reason that I would like to look at these two in combination, Mr. Chairman, is they occur in the same time frame, 1998 to 2001, those fiscal years. The information we have so far suggested...

Mr. Speaker, it is a real pleasure to repeat what my colleague has said on behalf of some of my constituents: Mike and Helena Haener and Josie and Howie Gould. Congratulations. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, as far as the documentation that the government would require when it looks at these applications, would there normally be a list of the directors of an organization, the financial officers? Is there any kind of backup to handing this money out? Is there an agreement in place? Are they contracted to provide the justification and the reporting on it? I guess what I’m looking for here, Mr. Chairman, is how solid is our paperwork, if you will, and our contracting method when we make these kinds of contributions to organizations? All of it is in good faith. But there is an onus to...