Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, I told the Member in an earlier question already today, earlier in this line of questioning, that I would be going back to the Executive to get the timeline and come back to the Member. I’m prepared to do that.

But let’s be realistic here. We’re talking about an investment in the Northwest Territories. The Member sees it as risk. I think we’re making investments in the Northwest Territories for the betterment of the Northwest Territories, for the long-term credibility and development of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, the area of agriculture, I believe, falls under the Hon. Bob McLeod, so I'd redirect that.

Mr. Speaker, like I’m telling the people of Canada, the federal government and the Prime Minister, the Mackenzie Valley Highway is of national interest. It will help us economically, and it will help us develop the territory. That project is in a similar fashion; it’s not only one piece that you make your decision on.

Where’s the vision? We need to ask ourselves: where’s the vision for the Northwest Territories? Do we want to stay with a “hat-in-hand” mentality, going to Ottawa saying: Give us more; give us more? Or instead: Give us the tools, and we can build the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I know the Ministers will be available for all the detailed questions Members may have in each department of those initiatives that are affected. In this part, as the government has prepared the budget — as I stated earlier, I believe it was yesterday — in the budget process when we talked about the normal business planning cycle, letters go out to departments in June and August and capital gets added. That is all put together and presented to Members in September for review and reporting back, and then Cabinet takes that back and makes some changes. We present a budget in...

No.

Mr. Speaker, I think if we just did an example from Mains to Mains, or even Revised Mains to Mains, we'd see that from Mains to Mains of ’07-08, as a practice of budgetary process, we're growing by 5.5 per cent, if you take out the one-time bump-ups for trucks that have been put in place and so on. So when we're talking about realignment, there's going to be a portion that we need to cap, or manage our growth of government. So there will be some reduction — Members are talking about reductions in different levels of programs — and an impact on some of our employees. But we want to reinvest...

Committees of oversight do exist. The Standing Committees on Social Programs, Economic Development and Infrastructure and of Priorities and Planning are looking at what the government is doing and keeping us accountable. Let’s also remember the fact that it wasn’t that long ago in the history of the Government of the Northwest Territories when Ministers of this government went down to Ottawa and sat at those tables. In fact, we didn’t sit at the tables; we sat in the hallway. Let’s be realistic. If we’re going to talk about being a grand municipal council instead of a territorial government...

Mr. Speaker, with all the questioning and answering on the process for quite a number of years, I thought the members of the public had had enough. The project is in place, construction is happening, trucks are moving, loaders are working, and people are being paid to go to work.

There is also the amount of the discussion we had, as was made by Member Bromley, that the Budget Address.... I guess I could have been here for a lot longer going into much more detail about all the specifics. The fact is, when you take O&M and our capital expenditures, it’s almost $1.3 billion of expenditures. We...

Mr. Speaker, we’ll be willing to look at it. Within the cost-of-living strategic initiatives there are a whole number of areas, and we definitely have to look at how we impact the lives of people in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, as I have committed to, as we begin our normal business planning process, that input, that back and forth is going to happen. It needs to happen as we proceed. We’ll present that, hear back, and go back and forth on that as we get back into our normal cycle. Not a first-year budget after an election. We’re ready to sit down on that basis.

As well, I’ve sat down with the Ministers to say that we need to get the committees on these initiatives. When the Building Canada Fund package was brought forward, recommendations were made. We looked at some of those changes, and we reacted to...