Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our expectation is that total expenditures will be about $6.6 million from GNWT monies, and $4.6 million from CATSA over the entire project, the $11.2 million. So in this year, we're looking at $3.4 million, and then the balance will show up in the main estimates in subsequent years.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In May I went to the FMB with two parts to a submission; one for the operations and maintenance of the Legal Services Board clinic in the amount of $266,000, and I asked at that time for fit-up costs as well. The FMB asked my department to do more work with Public Works to refine the fit-up costs, the capital costs. So we came back to FMB on August 22nd, or it was approved on August 22nd; it would have been submitted some weeks before that. So the space was advertised, on August 9, 2004, and the close of that request for proposals was August 27th. So the decision...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to reiterate that what we are talking about here is the expenditure and not the cost recovery in this supplementary. I’m sure the Minister is prepared to and the government is prepared to listen to advice of the committee on cost recovery. As I said, if it were to be an airport improvement fee it would have to come forward as legislation. The government cannot institute an airport improvement fee without it coming back to this House for approval. So there will be an opportunity for debate if that would be the method that the government would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said last week in response to Ms. Lee, there are a number of new staff who have been hired. There is a five week training program for 12 new correctional officers that started on October 4th. At the end of the five weeks, those people will move into positions that will help to alleviate the situation. The issue of the numbers of staff, as I also said to Ms. Lee last week, the North Slave Correctional Centre has a bigger staff complement than did the old centre and staffing up has required some work. In spite of that increase, there has been a reduction in the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My understanding is that the entire project will cost $11.2 million. So if you have $3.4 million here, the balance of that is what we will see through the main estimates process.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the landlord may be prepared to pay a good part of the expenditures. As I said, this special warrant was passed on August 22nd. There were no negotiations with any landlord at that point in time. So when FMB passed this, there was no way of knowing whether or not that was going to happen, so it doesn’t really matter to this decision when it was passed as to whether or not a landlord is prepared to pay. If we can get the landlord to pay for it, then that’s great, because it means that we don’t have to take the money out of the government coffers; we’ve...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess it’s important to point out the decision on cost recovery or how it’s going to happen hasn’t been made, so there are opportunities -- and you are having it right now -- for some comment and some debate. But I think it’s important to remember that when this was approved on June 30th, the fiscal situation that we were looking at was quite severe.

We had, not that long ago, gone through a budget session. Members will recall that the Minister of Finance in his budget address announced that we would be looking at next year's budget -- the one that will be coming up...

Mr. Speaker, as I’ve said, we’ve opted out of the Canada Student Loan Program, so we don’t maintain the exact standards of that program. The federal government has agreed to contribute, because our program, in general, is better than the federal program. So I don’t believe there was that sort of stipulation in any agreement for the contribution, no.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess to the last point first, since the money to pay for the project is coming out of general revenues, any receipts would go back into general revenues, as they should.

One of the terms and conditions of CATSA providing a contribution is that the improvements have to have a life of 10 to 15 years. Actually, CATSA says it has to have a life of 10 years. The department has projected the changes to the passenger terminal building will likely meet the needs of the travelling public for the next 10 to 15 years. So they feel they are safe on the CATSA side and are...

Madam Chair, if the landlord is going to put money into the tenant improvements, then I would suspect that we wouldn’t spend the $115,000. We have the authority to spend $115,000, but we will only spend whatever is required to develop the space. So if it only takes another $10,000 to develop the space, that’s all that would be spent. If it takes $115,000 to develop the space, that’s what will be spent. But we have the authority to spend in the area of $115,000 now, to fit up the space. Thank you, Madam Chair.