Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, I should say for the record that “mandatory days off” are in fact the official words that we use in our policy, going forward. The issue of what other areas we’re looking at — we do have to work with the unions that operate in the Northwest Territories, because the working conditions, the hours set, also work directly with those negotiations. So we’d be prepared to engage in a level of discussion to see if there are avenues of flexibility within that working arrangement. Once we get to the next stage and begin the next process of business planning for the remainder of the life of...

Mr. Chairman, the rest of the positions have been filled. We have one vacant position that’s there, and we’re using those funds to hire a contract negotiator on a number of our files.

Mr. Speaker, all I can say is that we have been sensitized by working with committee members and trying to do the best job we can. Hopefully, we can continue down that path and be as prepared as we are and responsive. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, absolutely. As I stated in the Budget Address, my focus will now be on getting the message out to the people who need to hear it: about our opportunity, what’s available and what we can do. It’s about getting the tools in the North to make those decisions in the North, and get on with where we think we should be going as a territory and as a people in the Northwest Territories.

Part of the next process is getting that information out there, and getting the message out about the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, as the Deputy Premier has informed me, there’s going to be some correspondence between the Senate committee and ourselves to share more information.

First and foremost, though, we have to realize that the federal government is ready to move on this file. We just have to make sure we get the proper deal. One of those things is to work up north first and get agreement to proceed forward or, if we decide there are just too many differences here, to look at what other approaches are available to us. But we are corresponding with the Senate committee, looking at options and sharing more...

We would be prepared to put that kit together, an information package, and share it with Members. I do believe Members can help us in getting the message up north. The simple fact that we’re looking at tightening our belts as a government shows everybody in the North that we need to get more revenues in the North. One of those packages is a revenue source flowing south right now. We need to bring that north so we can enhance our programs and not have to tighten our belts.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, we had correspondence with the Senate committee and had the Deputy Premier sit down with them and have some discussion, as well as one of our staff members.

Mr. Speaker, we are invited to be a part of that group that goes down there. Right now I believe it is only the western Premiers from southern Canada that are going down there. I’m not aware of the northern Premiers attending. For myself, I’ve had to look at the dates that would conflict with that. At this point the calendar hasn’t changed, so I would not be attending that, though the option was there for me to be there.

Mr. Speaker, the Western Premiers’ Conference, as I was saying earlier, is one that I felt went very well for the Northwest Territories. To have our issues part of the communications package that went out from that meeting across Canada does a number of things. It raises our level of interest. It sends a message to the federal government. The next steps for us from the Western Premiers’ Conference would be on issues that we feel would be encouraged by further bringing them to the Council of the Federation — that is, all the Premiers across the country — and then coming up with a specific plan...

Mr. Speaker, I’m not aware of — maybe I don’t understand the question — a rule or practice that stops Ministers in Committee of the Whole from having a discussion on issues that may affect their constituencies. In the formal House, as we are now, we’re unable to, for example, question government direction or where it’s going. But in Committee of the Whole we have from time to time had Ministers and Members as well question what is occurring at that time, whether it’s a motion in the House or an item under debate.