Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to start off with the office of devolution, if I could too. I am just wondering what is the expected life of this. We start off anticipating a long haul and now we hear negotiations are done this fall, expected to be a final agreement in place. I imagine it will take some time for implementation. I’m wondering what the expected life of this new division is. Thank you.

I understand that now. It would seem to be reported as two different things here. These are both the general rate application and the Inuvik gas pertaining to the general rate application. Is that correct?

That’s really it. I guess the last part of my question was, does the Minister also see this enhancement being made available in the regional centres such as Yellowknife and the communities that he mentioned?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate your patience. One last one just to cap that off. I know Ms. Bisaro, I think, asked about this, but will we… Let me rephrase that. I’m sure that committee will have an early opportunity for input on the terms of reference for looking into the red tape aspect. Could I just get that confirmed? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again for those comments. Again, of course, I wasn’t speaking about this case now. I’ve backed off and I’m speaking in a sort of a systemic issue, so I think the deadlines are sort of mute with respect to that.

Again, I have to be a bit reticent in just accepting the Minister’s intentions compared to what the final result is, because the recent update by the Auditor General on recommendations for improvements to the Housing Corporation operations some years ago found that there has been unsatisfactory progress on ensuring applications for housing are dealt with...

Yes, thank you.

Just on the contribution to the Inuvik gas situation, is that a one-time cost, do we know, or is that expected to be an annual cost?

Is there a target in terms of the portion? Are we asking for sort of a 20 percent flexibility for nurse practitioners? That sort of thing. Do we have an idea yet of what we’re looking for there?

It must be wonderful to have all these resource people. We’ve just started here and we’re up to quite a few people. I wonder if there’s been any consideration to providing the same level of support, or even maybe a tenth of that, for this side of the House for our committee staff, who are certainly hardworking people and haven’t changed in numbers, to my knowledge, for quite some time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As people struggle with the high cost of living, providing adequate, affordable and nutritious food to our families can be a challenge. We are dependent on costly southern food, so the affordability of eating right is an issue. When we rely on food from the South, we export our purchasing dollars to the South, and instead of local jobs and businesses, we support jobs and investment afar. Greenhouse gas production increases from transporting food long distances.

The affect some communities have experienced from changes to federal air mail demonstrates the problem we all...