Charles Dent

Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right is the deputy minister of the department, Mr. Mark Cleveland; on my left is Mr. Paul Devitt, director of management services.

Mr. Chairman, I assume the Member is talking about page 9-34 now.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The college has the ability to determine where they run their programs. It’s administered by a board and I think that they are quite interested in offering as many programs regionally as they can. To be honest though, they’re somewhat challenged because the amount of money we’re handing on to them has not increased; in fact, it has gone down over the years. So they are challenged to deliver any more programming than they otherwise would.

If the Member can demonstrate to them the economies that might occur by using the camps that may be available for very little cost in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe that both positions are in Rae. It's two equivalent positions, so it's equivalent to full-time equivalents. Given the caseload in the Tlicho region, that's not an unreasonable number when you compare the numbers that we have through regions across the Territories. There is not a big caseload in the Dogrib region. There are not a lot of people who are on income support. The economy has really dramatically impacted the numbers in the whole North Slave region that are collecting income support at present.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At our meeting last Friday, I spent a considerable amount of time trying to demonstrate to other Ministers around the table some of the problems that we face in the Northwest Territories trying to deliver equitable services in the smaller communities, particularly the higher cost of infrastructure, the higher cost of trained staff and the difficulty of finding a way to do it in very small communities. I used that as justification for why the Northwest Territories and the other territories needed to have base funding as part of this transfer because if we only get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last fall a process was started that included the DEA, the DEC, the town, the Gwich’in and the Inuvialuit in Inuvik, to work with consultants from Education, Culture and Employment to examine the options. We also brought in the experts from Public Works and Services and we have decided that it would not be economically feasible to renovate SAM School and that has been passed on in writing to the DEA. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning. Mr. Speaker, I would like to update Members on the implementation of the action plan for human resources in the corrections service, which I released last December.

A review began in August and the final report, prepared by corporate human resources, identified 35 items to be considered.

The action plan was prepared in response to this review. To implement this plan, a team was established, including an independent evaluator, human resources and information technology staff, and corrections staff.

I’m pleased to report that of the 35 recommendations we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We haven’t gotten to that point yet because we aren’t sure, as I said, how much money there’s going to be. When we have that announcement and the provincial, territorial and federal Ministers meet shortly after the budget next week to decide how the money will be apportioned, then we will very quickly move to determine the NWT apportionment. Just as the Northwest Territories is fighting for a portion that is not representative of strictly per capita, we will remember that when we talk about how to spend the money in the Northwest Territories as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point, we haven’t done anything to plan for how this money would be spent because we don’t know if we are talking about less than $1 million or $6 million. That’s the range we are talking about. It could be a very small amount of money or it could be $6 million. If we are successful in getting the larger amount of money, obviously we will have to have some process for setting out the expenditure. If we are only going to be offered a few hundred thousand dollars, we are going to have to question if we will even bother to participate because of the reporting...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department would be willing to consult with people in Inuvik. That’s one of the purposes why the steering committee was set up -- the one that includes the town, the DEA, the DEC and so on -- was to make sure that the structure that is built is reflective of what the community wants. There may need to be some partnerships developed though in order to pay for some spaces that wouldn’t normally qualify for government support, but we’re always willing to look for those partnerships and find ways to accommodate community needs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.