Floyd Roland

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it is, as we stated, a concern and the issue of capacity is a big one. As we’re seeing potentially, we feel that as part of the impact on the competition side. Over the North overall is there capacity to do these projects in all of our communities in the time we have set out? If you look at the request for carry-overs plus the 2007-2008 budget we’ve just passed, the capital program we have sitting out there now is just under $250 million. That’s a significant amount of work that would be required in a year, so one of the exercises that we go through in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in celebration of National Nurses Week from May 7th to 13th, I would like to acknowledge the tireless contributions made to the residents of the NWT by our nurses.

This year’s theme, Think You Know Nursing? Take a Closer Look, focuses on the expanded roles of nurses as leaders, innovators, pioneers, primary care providers, mentors, educators, researchers and administrators.

Mr. Speaker, the nursing shortage being experienced across Canada is also a reality here in the NWT. We are addressing this by training our own northern workforce through a four-year...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we’ve noticed that on a lot of our projects in the Northwest Territories and our larger capital projects, we are at times receiving one bidder on a tender package. That can be some of the larger ones. Even in the city of Yellowknife, which is our largest community, we may get two bidders on some of our larger projects. That affects the way we can look at things. If we’re going out for competition and finding there’s little competition and there’s one price, what do we do if it’s, for example, twice the amount that was established in the budget? So we’re...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Joining me at the table here to my left is the director of budget management evaluation, Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, and to my right is the manager of budget development evaluation, Mr. Charles Tolley. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this goes on from quite a long process; it just didn’t come up overnight. We have worked with our tax collectors, those that have that status, in collecting the taxes. We don’t charge home heating oil any fuel tax. The problem is, as those that purchase the bulk supply, they buy under the home heating oil banner and, for the Northwest Territories, there is no limit to that. What happens as a result of this is the federal excise tax can kick in, because what we are saying in the Northwest Territories now is that everyone purchasing fuel would purchase...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the work that we are doing within Finance around fuel tax collectors -- and there are about 30 of them in the Northwest Territories -- comes out of a result of a number of things that have occurred. One, in the tax administration of how we deal with home heating oil versus diesel, or motive diesel as we call it. In the Northwest Territories, there is no distinction between that. When a supplier purchases from a bulk supplier, there is no difference when it comes in the Northwest Territories. In fact, they can purchase home heating oil and motive diesel...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in some cases, yes, there are a couple of additional steps that are required because of the federal excise tax piece of it, but a number of the companies that have tax collector status on fuel sales have already done quite a thorough job. As they supply us information, it is very clear as to what happened.

Mr. Speaker, just to highlight some of the concerns, when we have problems with the administration or the processes of change an application to rebate taxes to entities that have used fuel for purposes of having a lesser tax rate than the one that is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our normal procedures are we have contact with the fuel tax collectors around tax season or regularly as we get input. We have some good tax collectors. The status of our fuel tax collectors is good. We also have areas where we are challenged in and doing further investigation. We normally would contact them initially with written correspondence around any potential changes and inform them through that avenue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to provide an update on the fiscal position of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Since the Legislative Assembly approved the 2007-08 Main Estimates for the GNWT in March of this year, there have been significant changes to the government’s financial picture. The changes are positive and with prudent decision-making will help to establish a solid foundation on which this Legislature can plan future activities.

As Members are aware, appropriate and predictable territorial formula financing, or TFF, arrangements and an increased GNWT borrowing limit...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s not just a matter of one subject or one disability over another being added to the list. There are many that don’t make the list, whether it’s in the drug side, particular procedures and, as well, we’d have to look at, as we do with a lot of our programs, income of individuals and whether they qualify for some of our programs or not. Thank you.