Bob Bromley

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate this opportunity to learn a little bit more about this. Would it be true to say that this is a body of a potential source of funds for when we start overspending from our regular budget, or are there things that are actually put to this short-term debt regardless of the fact that we already have the dollars in our budget for other things, if you see the difference there?

Thanks for that response. The last question I have is I believe the deposit on oil drums has been removed and no longer is in place and I think that’s causing some issues. Well, I know that’s causing some issues for cleanup and a lot are being left out on the land and so on.

People that are in the business of cleaning up sites are no longer bringing them back, because that $50 deposit enabled them to do that. Is there any contemplation of this division for going after that issue and seeing what can be done about it and re-establishing some sort of deposit and ensuring that those materials are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Is there a prevailing interest rate that applies to this or how does that work? Is it different than the long-term borrowing interest rates? What would be the cost these days, for example, of a $275 million, $300 million short-term debt? I assume it would change through the year, but if I can get a rough idea of the amount we’re spending to maintain this borrowing capacity.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could I just get an update on the plans for the electronics recycling? I have to smile because I ask this every year, as the Minister knows, and I keep hearing positive responses, but no action on the ground. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a hard time being interested myself with the sort of response I get from the Premier. So, again, his strategy is working. The lack of interest is not real lack of interest; it’s a lack of opportunity to engage. So I’m saying to the Premier, what opportunities will he provide to engage with real people on real issues and make this legislation our own?

What changes to this legislation, what evolving is this Premier going to propose on the input he’s received to make it our own based on his earlier commitments, devolve and then evolve? What has he heard? What are the...

I agree, a close look is needed because we have clearly been failing miserably on our management of caribou. The herds have continued to plummet with every new report that we get. So I’m not averse to looking at how we’re spending it, but it is disconcerting to hear that sort of thing when we’re clearly failing.

Just on the caribou situation, I don’t think there’s any doubt that cow caribou, the female caribou, the adult female caribou are worth their weight in diamonds or gold or whatever it is that you value, yet in every case where we have established a quota and assigned a ratio of the...

I would just like to mention that I have probably accessed it a dozen times from my chair here, so that doesn’t tell us anything, Mr. Speaker. What we need is a meaningful consultation, a meaningful interaction, a discussion back and forth.

Who is going to interact meaningfully between a screen and themselves on sweeping devolution legislation like this that is complex and so on? Will the Premier get real and get a real process in place that starts providing opportunity for interactions with our public and making this northern legislation?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe we’re on page 113, wildlife. I guess my first question is I see there’s been a $1 million reduction in wildlife research and management. This is a time when I know we’re all aware we have serious issues. Why the drop there? If I can get an explanation on that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last March the government adopted sweeping devolution legislation without one iota of public review. Members of this House insisted that a meaningful process for public input be put in place. The process now in place is pitiful. The outreach to citizenry on the seven substantive acts is limited to a few newspaper ads inviting people to go to the government website and fight their way through menus to get to a place that they purportedly can leave comments and ask questions.

Then what happens? Constituents report that the response time to questions posted to the site is...

Then there’s the understanding that we would have surplus. Perhaps it’s not in the Fiscal Responsibility Policy. Fifty percent of our infrastructure budget would be based on surplus. If I could just get the deputy minister or the Minister to fill in that part of the equation for me.