Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Following some of the words from Mr. McLeod from Inuvik Twin Lakes, I’m wondering if the department considered additional mandatory leave days in the summer.

My impression — and it’s just that — is that productivity has actually gone up during mid-winter in relation to the so-called Donnie Days that employees still enjoy. That’s leave without pay. But it allows some extended family time. It’s got to be healthy for families as well as labour relations and so on. I know there’s interest out there in our brief but beautiful summer season.

If employees had access to…. Say if...

Mr. Speaker, our economy is sort of like a freight train right now. We have a roaring economy. There’s a lot of people benefitting. At the same time there’s a lot of people who are feeling barrelled over, as we heard in some of the statements today. There’s a number of passengers on this train. Clearly, those passengers who are benefitting are industry representatives, businesses and so on.

Will the Minister invite onto this panel representatives of the social and environmental communities?

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to follow up on my spontaneous Member’s statement regarding the Minister of ITI’s announcement about the Minister’s Advisory Panel on the Economy. Does the Minister agree that a strong and sustainable economy is one that actually includes social and environmental considerations best represented by members of those communities?

Any comments? General comments? Okay. No general comments at this time. Does the committee agree? Mrs. Groenewegen.

Information item. Any questions on the next two pages, Active Positions under Directorate?

Moving on, we’re on page 2-59, Human Resource Strategy and Policy, Operations Expenditure Summary, $4,855,000. Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Tabled Document 37-16(2), Main Estimates 2008–2009, Volumes 1 and 2, and Committee Report 5-16(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2008–2009 Draft Main Estimates, and would like to report progress.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for those remarks, Minister. Of course, this is a real situation. Inuvik failed to get their fuel supply last year, and the surrounding communities suffered accordingly. Residents paid more and so on. But it wasn't a real shortage, and that's obviously a real possibility.

For the Minister's information, catastrophic events are going up by about an order of magnitude around the world, both in costs and frequency, so we can expect this to be a real situation.

I understand that we're losing our emergency preparedness coordinator. I'm asking that the Minister...

Ms. Woodward.

Other questions? Ms. Bisaro.