David Ramsay

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I just want to follow up on my colleague’s questions. It’s interesting, I guess. I find it hard to believe that we’d be here today facing this $17 million item in a supp, $11.5 million of it for Stanton alone, when it was over two years ago that alarm bells were first rung over the deficits that were accruing at Stanton Territorial Hospital. That was two years ago. It’s nice to see the government finally waking up and wanting to do something about it. But this is not a problem that just happened overnight. It’s a problem that’s been going on for awhile.

As for...

I know the issue of the $26 million is not in this supp, but I think it’s germane to the debate we’re having on the $11.5 million of accrued deficit the government wants us to approve in this supplementary appropriation. I want to have some peace of mind that the cause of their accrued deficit at Stanton is going to be addressed.

I’m having another tough time understanding how it is that we could bring in a public administrator for three months and they’re going to solve what’s wrong with Stanton in three months. That contract’s up. We’re over halfway through that contract. I’d like to ask the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask for the third time — it’s not the financial Minister; it’s the Minister of Health. It’s the third time I’ve asked the question, and I’d like a straight answer on how many unfunded programs there are at Stanton, how many unfunded positions there are. She guessed 27, but I’d like to know the exact number. I’d also like to know under what authority were the unfunded programs and positions approved and who approved it.

I want to speak again today about sex offender and family violence programming at North Slave Correctional Centre.

I've been greatly concerned over the Minister's comments to me, in previous rounds of questioning, that the two program delivery officers are going to be reassigned to caseworkers, and that other staff at the facility are going to be trained to deliver the programming. This is completely absurd. Does the Minister really and actually believe that other staff could attend a week or ten-day training course and just simply step into delivering a group therapy sex offender or family...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. The committee met with the Minister and his staff on April 10, 2008, to consider the department’s 2008–2009 Draft Main Estimates. The committee noted that the department is proposing to spend $57.8 million in operating expenses for the fiscal year 2008–2009. The proposed budget for the department’s capital plan is $12.1 million.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I will ask Mrs. Groenewegen to provide committee’s comments on issues arising out of their review of the 2008–2009 Draft Main Estimates. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. The committee met with the Minister and his officials on April 3, 2008, to consider the department’s Draft Main Estimates.

The department’s proposed operating budget for 2008–2009 is $6.2 million, a reduction of $1.12 million, or 15.12 per cent, from the 2007–2008 fiscal year.

Committee members offer the following comments on issues arising out of the review of the 2008–2009 Draft Main Estimates.

The Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations is responsible for negotiating and implementing land claims in self-government agreements on...

Mr. Speaker, I am having trouble understanding how…. I don’t see anywhere in what I’ve read — the information that I’ve read from the Correctional Service of Canada — where they say it’s okay to train somebody for a week or ten days and send them into a classroom in group therapy so they can train or program sex offenders so they can be rehabilitated and go back into the community. I am not sure where it says that anywhere.

I want to ask the Minister: does he understand that having a “train the trainer” that he talked about the other day and backfilling positions…? We are talking about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on my Member's statement. Again, I want to question the Minister of Justice today, in this House, regarding the delivery and provision of sex offender programming and family violence programming at North Slave Correctional Centre.

The more I think about this and the more digging around that I'm able to do, it raises a number of concerns for me. I've asked the Minister this question before, about how the qualifications and the delivery of programming at North Slave Correctional Centre could potentially impact the federal inmates that are housed at that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to provide a few comments on Public Works and Services. I know the reduction exercise was there and the department was challenged, but they’ve done a good job in coming up with the reductions that were asked. They’re up a little bit, but I think it’s all very defensible.

I wanted to mention that it’s a department where there are a lot of challenges, and the Minister and the management inside that department are managing the issues there quite well. I didn’t have any real concerns with what’s happening there, aside from the fact that we have to be very...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I’m going to speak in favour of the motion as well.

I’m not sure if it goes far enough. To be fair to Aboriginal Affairs, they’re not alone. I think the government, in its entirety, should be somewhat ashamed of itself for having…. And not just this government; previous governments too — let’s be fair. We’ve had an Affirmative Action Policy in place for a number of years, and if you look at senior management, aboriginal people in senior management positions in this government is 15 per cent. DAAIR’s not alone. It’s a problem that runs throughout the government...