Floyd Roland

This budget item deals with the bridge program that has been partnered with the federal government and G.N.W.T. Department of Transportation and has been in progress for a number of years. It addresses crossings of the creeks and rivers up in the Sahtu area, so it doesn’t include the ice roads up in the Beaufort-Delta.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, as I’ve sat here and listened intently, I’m sure they wouldn’t want to be brought up to this floor with next year’s public accounts or contracts over $5,000 and be reminded of that.

It is something we are looking at, as well as departmental travel.

Mr. Speaker, I’m very familiar with that one, so I can inform the Member and this House about that process.

In trying to establish a contract with a firm, looking at what kind of work you want done and what you’re hoping to get the message out and the delivery on, in those cases one would approach — in my case, anyway — the Premier of the day to ask for advice in this area regarding the work that’s going to be undertaken.

In some cases that type of investment produces a much bigger benefit. If we want to get into that, I can talk about the $50 million it’s saved us as the Government of the...

Mr. Speaker, we need to go back a little bit and see what the actual question was that I responded to. The questions were about actual contracts for doing the work for ordering materials. That’s my understanding. I have to qualify this; otherwise, I’ll be thrown out for saying something or committing to something else.

I’ve been trying to respond to Members of this House the majority of the time on this specific project. I’ve looked at the information, I’ve provided what knowledge I had and what issues I was trying to address on the day, and I’ve responded since then when we’ve got the...

Mr. Chairman, I think this is a matter of both scenarios: containing those who are incarcerated in the facility and, in some cases, keeping people away from those who are in the facility. Part of their mandate is the safety of both inmates as well as the public. What they have provided for information is to secure the environment around those facilities.

Yes, questions about the 16th Legislative Assembly. The fact is that Members did not ask the question itself. I responded to questions that were given to me in this House when the Members asked for the specific information, worked with the departments, brought that information, and had that delivered to committee.

Mr. Chairman, I’ll have to defer that to the Minister of Justice. I believe he has more accurate information than I could provide or even had provided the other day, so I’ll go to the Minister of Justice for that.

Mr. Speaker, as Finance Minister for the 16th Legislative Assembly, the requirements that have been made upon myself to provide information have been provided. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, again, the Minister of Public Works and Services probably has more detail on this project.