David Krutko

I move that $12 million be deleted from the activity Asset Management under the Department of Public Works and Services, Capital Estimates 2009–2010, on pages 4-4 and 4-5, for the GNWT multi-use facility and records storage facility project; and further that the Department of Public Works and Services conduct a market disruption analysis on the potential impacts of the proposed multi-use office facility and record storage facility on the Inuvik office space property markets and report back to the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning by January 2009; and furthermore that the Department...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regard to the Shell Lake storage building I’d like to know exactly what’s being done in that particular facility. Is that part of the move of the people from the office downtown out to Shell Lake? Is this a continuing expenditure on that particular move?

There was some correspondence received this morning from the Minister of Public Works in regard to subcontracts regarding a particular contract for the school project in Inuvik. I know there were concerns out there regarding who the subs were. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could provide that information to the affected parties.

Again, Mr. Chairman, I think it is important that we do understand what the retail market is in Inuvik in terms of people’s leases, when those leases are up and, more importantly, what the implications are going to be if there is a downtrend in the market with people’s ability to borrow to do these retrofits we were asking for. The people made major capital investments in these assets just a number of years ago. As I stated, less than four to five years ago these assets were acquired. So these people are in it for 20 to 30 years, and now, as government, I do not think we should be in the...

Again, Mr. Chairman, my argument is that we have to ensure that we have people in the field who are equipped by way of having somebody on the road on the Dempster Highway, regardless of whether they are patrolling or what. If they don’t have radio for communication, to me that is putting that person in danger. Anything can happen when they’re on the road. The basics should include radios in their vehicles. Instead of giving them a vehicle that’s an old rundown pickup truck versus the nice fancy vehicles running around in Inuvik, they should be working those vehicles in the field. So why is...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to ask the Minister with regard to the contract for the Inuvik school…. I know there are some outstanding issues. When do you expect to resolve those outstanding issues? I believe one of the issues is bonding.

Also with regard to the contract itself, can the Minister give us any idea of exactly when you expect to have a final conclusion to the negotiated contract in regard to the outstanding issues?

Is the government considering building any other office space anywhere else in the Northwest Territories?

Under the land claim agreements they have established protected areas, and I know they established Gwich’in Territorial Park out of Inuvik. They also established the CANOL Trail in the Sahtu, which was part of the land claim agreements under protected areas.

I think it is important that there were also some obligations under those agreements to establish park committees to look at the opportunities that flow from that park development by way of employment opportunities in regard to the aboriginal culture and crafts. I would like know how much money has been expended today in regard to those...

For how long a period is the department looking at maintaining these leases? Are they long term leases or simply month to month?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We keep hearing discussions about a proposal that was out there. I’ll clarify for the record. The proposal was for a lease-purchase facility in Inuvik; the idea was to lease to the government for 25, 30 years and buy it out for $1. That was the proposal that was put out in the request for proposal.

But after the request for proposal was sent and reviewed, it came back that there were some financial implications because of Revenue Canada and the way they calculated the revenues from that lease. There was an implication where you had to pay the calculated amount of the lease...