Floyd Roland

Thank you. The issues of the outages is one that I’ve asked to get some additional information on from the Power Corporation and I’ll get that back to the Member, as well as I’ll have them communicate with the community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve been kept up to date on the outages that have occurred and some of the concerns around there. I know, for example, in February there were a number of outages, some from a 10-minute outage to about a 40-minute outage. Some of it is equipment related and we’re investigating what’s a growing concern.

I do know that in our past in our discussions about alternative energies, the Jean Marie facility was looked at I’ll have to get information of where that sits. I’m looking at replacement of our engines there to a newer model, but we are investigating if that was feasible...

There was no waiving of notice of Members. It is a natural part of the decision to provide an exemption to indemnification where the process that was followed is a standard practice and has been in place since 1999. This decision to do that as a normal part of business -- and governments across the land use this as a tool -- was to address the need to indemnify, in the initial case, the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and then follow up with the lenders. We could read out exactly what that indemnification meant. Again, in the paper, in the response that I gave to committee we did reflect on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let’s be clear on this: Cabinet did not overrule Transportation. The fact is this project was under the Department of Transportation and it is the initiative of the department and Minister to bring forward papers for discussions on that process.

Again, the notifications particular to what the Member just stated about the amendment to indemnifications, the list is attached to the regulations. The Minister of Finance can provide a list of those that are included in the regulations. Again, this process does not, it is a normal part of business and it foregoes the 14-day process that we’ve gone through. That was discussed with Members. In fact, again, the letter I wrote to the chair of Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure and the attachment highlighted the need for looking at a modernization of the Financial...

The process of any construction project coming forward, number one, the specific department would have to do a number of analyses in coming forward with a request for a decision. In this case, the Department of Transportation looked at many of those options and came forward with their paper. Decisions were made based on that.

Now, as well, I must say, as we’re talking about a decision made back in February at the request of Members of this Assembly to myself, I had authorized the Department of Executive to work with the departments involved, that was Transportation, Justice and Finance at the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The fact that this process that the Member is questioning has been used since 1999 and is in fact part of documents that are available to the public on indemnifications, that indemnification to the exemption of regulations used, and they are public, a process used since 1999. So this wasn’t done for a project specific to this for avoiding rules. It is something that’s in place and, in fact, I believe the Finance Minister is working on an updated formula finance or a Financial Administration Act that would bring more clarity to issues of this nature. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has raised this issue a number of times in the past and, in fact, again, questioning this government about a previous government decision on what’s to be happening. Clearly it’s laid out in the Financial Administration Act. There is process to request indemnification in this process clearly laid out and Members are aware of that. So that process was done and it’s the FMB that votes on any of those decisions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. The program that we do have in place and the programs we have in place do take into consideration the seniors are exempt from any of these. For example, public housing, rent free, other housing programs that we have, it is household income, but it is the income of a person that doesn’t qualify as a senior or an elder in our communities. So we have taken that into consideration as we look at the design of our programs. I know that the Minister of the Housing Corporation is looking at a Shelter Policy for the Government of the Northwest Territories as well. So when we look into the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is one of our goals, is to keep our family members in their homes for as long as possible. When we design some of our programs, we try to be as much assistance, for example, on property tax breaks, fuel subsidy issue, or housing repair programs. We do try to take that into consideration before looking at the institution side of the equation. Thank you.