Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, we have not asked for an opinion in that area. I would again, looking at the file and seeing where we are at…. We made an assumption. Looking at the contract, a concession agreement has been agreed to and the builder has been offered a guaranteed price. If we were to back out now, in my opinion — I shouldn’t offer that, I guess, as I am not a lawyer, thankfully; stick to the business I do know — we would be challenged. We’d have to look at that.

We do value the volunteers who provide much input into a lot of our communities. In fact, that’s why we have, through agreements with the unions, a number of initiatives that provide for employees to take part in volunteer initiatives throughout the Territory.

I would have a difficult time looking at that specific issue. We need to look at the whole way we provide and support the volunteer sector, and one of the examples is the through our established civic leave process.

What was raised yesterday was about trying to look at other ways we can do that. The Member is correct: I myself would not be able to touch base with all of my employees, but I would pursue that through our departments. We need to seek those that are directly involved.

I recall even from my own days as a public servant in the Government of the N.W.T. that you see things at a community level that you know can be addressed, and there can be some savings identified. We should not turn a blind eye to those that are on the front-line and who might have some ideas for us. We’ll look at ways of trying...

We've been informed by the parties that the lawyers require until the third week of February — February 22, in and around that time frame — to sign off the final document. And again, if there are no changes that affect our side of the equation, it’s a go. The only reason it would come back is if they try to renegotiate a portion of that. Then it would come back to our table. If they go ahead and sign the deal, as do the banks and the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, the process is underway.

Mr. Speaker, the significant time frames for our government have come to pass in the sense of the extension that was granted through the banking institution on the loan guarantee, as well as the lending of the dollars for the bridge corporation. The one aspect is, as we are informed, the lawyers are doing their work to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. If it were to come back to this table and require any change, then that’s when it would come back to our table.

Mr. Speaker, the ownership structures are reviewed as part of the process. A benefit analysis for that community or region is looked at as well. The whole area of negotiated contracts is up for discussion. And yes, the intention, when you look at the negotiated contracts policy, is to build an economic factor within the smaller communities. They can then move into the free market situation where there is competition among people and companies in that sense.

We’re going to work in a way that is respectful for Members as well as for employees when we do make decisions on what positions may be affected. We’re going to work in that environment, where we’re working in a transparent forum. We definitely don’t want Members to walk back to their communities when a decision has been made and you’re approached by people who you’re not aware have been affected. We are going to try to do business differently. Even with that, we’re coming back to this House, to Members, for input, so you’ll be aware of the changes that are going to take place.

Mr. Speaker, one of the other areas we have initiated in this government is the infrastructure committee, which will look at how we deliver infrastructure: the timing, the processes, negotiated contracts. There’s a policy overall, government-wide, that is used by departments. We would have to do, in a sense, a case-by-case analysis to see if in fact there was a savings. The other fact of that is, when we talk about sustainable community, it is a way of initiating economic development in our smaller communities. So that’s a balance we have to look at as well.

As I’ve stated earlier, this is going to be a broad approach. We’re looking at all departments. The larger your budget is, the larger portion will be looked at just for the fact that that’s where the budget is. We are going through an exercise that will look at the strategic initiatives that we’ve set as the 16th Legislative Assembly. We’re going to look for opportunities to re-profile, to make better use of the dollars we do spend. We’re going to have to live within the financial cap we have with a billion-dollar expenditure.

As the Member pointed out…. He mentioned 6,000, but when you look at...

Mr. Speaker, as we develop our overall plan for the Government of the Northwest Territories, we’ll need to, as I’ve committed, go back to the Members with our options for the savings we need, the re-profiling that we want to do, the reinvesting we want to do in priority areas as well as some of our capital in our communities and the revenue options that we have identified. That’s all got to come back to Members. And we’ll share that as we put our plan together. Thank you.