Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just wondering: I am not familiar with wildland fire engine. If I can get some understanding of that since I am supposed to be approving this budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I guess I would seek more clarity. There was a lot of fluff in that response. Some early consultation and then moving into consultations in 2015 and 2016 and rollout in 2015-2016. I’m not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling here. We’re looking for some steady progress here and I think the Minister knows that.

Can we expect April 1st of 2015 there will be some implementation happening on the ground in the Beau-Del? Mahsi.

Thank you. If memory serves – and I can always look this up – the schedule after Beau-Del, I believe, was to return to Yellowknife and the Tlicho, so ’15-16.

Can I assume that ’16-17 will be Yellowknife? Mahsi.

I would ask the Premier to reread that principle for himself in some nice quiet time when he can fully comprehend it. Being constantly aware of the principles that we all swore an oath to and honouring the spirit of those principles – just to be sure the Premier heard the spirit of those principles – require the commitment of all Members of this House, the commitment of all Members of this House.

Is the government committed to conducting the business of this House in the spirit of the 10 guiding principles of consensus government? Mahsi.

I appreciate the Premier’s explanation of their thinking as far as they got.

Regular Members of this House, of course, were caught by surprise by the announcement of this Cabinet largesse, learning about it the way most citizens of the NWT did: through the media.

Were any members of responsible committees meaningfully consulted or consulted at all on this latest $20 million subsidy Cabinet has come up with?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize a couple of hardworking constituency assistants, both of whom are residents of Weledeh. Of course my CA, Bob Wilson, a long-time businessman and involved in many aspects of the community with the city and so on. Also, Amanda Mallon, another Weledeh resident involved in many aspects of our community in the NWT. A big welcome to David Wasylciw as well. Mahsi.

I appreciate the Minister’s perspective there and I know he has the same perspective as me in the long run. What it also means is we’re giving up the opportunity for services to people and for doing a better job at dealing with the cost of living, et cetera. We have a record for continually going back to big daddy to raise our borrowing limit and so on, and we don’t seem to pay much attention to those. We try to have a $100 million buffer, and that’s starting to disintegrate because of these sorts of decisions and unexpected costs.

The alert, I think, is unexpected costs are becoming an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Residents of the North are clearly burdened with astronomical costs: power, heat, food, and gas for cars, ATVs and snowmobiles, transportation to other communities. Nearly everything costs significantly more here than elsewhere in Canada and the world. For many this burden is manageable. They make a good wage, often two in the same family. However, this is not the case for everyone, and a significant number of Northerners struggle to make ends meet, often losing the battle. Our social service and income support statistics bear this out.

Government has gotten into the...

So that difference between the $329,000 and $657,000 was essentially accounted for by the additional commitments to making the building accessible to those with disabilities as I understand it. That’s all I had then.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a new type 4 wildland fire engine that is noted in the budget here under our list of capital projects under forest management. I am just not familiar with what that is, so I wanted to try and understand what that is before I approve its purchase. Thank you.