David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of other questions. I guess the first one, the obvious one, is why isn't the private sector involved in the procurement of office space? You know, if you do have office space requirements in Inuvik, why aren't you going out to the private sector to have an office building built? Why are you hiring a consultant to run out and do this work when you don't even know what you're doing?

The other thing I'd like the Minister to provide me with is a breakdown of what this $320,000 is going to be spent on, because I really am having trouble trying to understand...

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Villeneuve.

Thanks, Madam Chair. According to some of the, I guess, excuses for the work not getting done, it was the consultants that were also not completing work on time or getting things done and I think the message that I do want to send, Madam Chair, to the Minister, is the work isn’t getting done and I think I just want to send that loud and clear to the Minister. I don’t believe we’re doing enough to make sure the work does get done and I’ll leave it at that, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Advanced education and careers, $4.867 million.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Minister for that. The last thing I’ll say is that I believe wholeheartedly that the sooner you get all of the stakeholders under one roof to discuss issues that are relative to everybody, then and only then can you come up with a management plan and until you do that you really, like I said, it’s like you really don’t know what the target is, you don’t know what the end game is, you don’t know what the results are going to be. You have to get everybody together. So I’d just leave it at that, Mr. Chairman, and I know the Minister was listening to my...

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess where I’d like to start with this is the fact that the government is lapsing a number of projects from one year to the next and, as the Minister knows, this causes me a great deal of concern. The reason I bring that up -- and the Minister spoke of it in his opening comments -- is the fact that it begs the question of what the various departments out there are doing. Are they doing all the work that they’re supposed to be doing? Are they contracting what should be their responsibilities as employees out to various contractors in the hopes that they can do...

Total department, $1.784 million.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.