Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the spirit of working in a consensus-style government, yes, we are prepared. I believe we can have something to committee probably within the next month. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as I stated, we tried a number of avenues to collect the money that is due to ourselves in a number of areas. This initially came out of the Workers’ Compensation Board of NWT and Nunavut and the amount that was owed to them. The company itself reopened in 2001 and at the end of 2003 was forced to apply to the British Columbia Supreme Court for protection under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act. That was received in December of that year. So that’s what kicked this off. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we undertake a number of avenues of trying to collect funds from those who owe money to the Government of the Northwest Territories through a number of initiatives, but there are a number of factors that we do have to live by as well as the Government of the Northwest Territories. Some of these accounts or loans, grants that were put in place had attached to them guarantees and so on in place, or a business that was established would shut down and go out of business and all assets may have been sold, but not enough to repay the full debt.

At times, we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There's a number of factors that play a role here. Year by year it would fluctuate. With our stronger economy in the Northwest Territories, the job market being as robust as it is, more people employed and being able to meet their payment plans and so on has been good in that sense. So it would fluctuate from year to year. Yes, over the last number of years, the government has tightened up on its collection side to ensure that we clean up that section of area and government accounting. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Member's correct; at this stage it does hurt individuals for credit rating as we find ourselves at this stage, because it's already gone through the collections process and was not recovered. As I stated earlier, there are a number of factors that come in, but it is primarily done…The initial counselling or discussion of trying to set up prepayment plans is done within departments and boards and agencies. Because it's such a broad spectrum of groups that are involved, whether it's specifically with departments or agencies, there are a number of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With me at the table is the secretary to the FMB, Mr. Mark Cleveland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to introduce Bill 10, Forgiveness of Debts Act, 2006-2007. This bill requests authority for the forgiveness of certain debts listed in the schedule of the act.

Pursuant to section 25(1) of the Financial Administration Act, the forgiveness of a debt or obligation to the government exceeding $1,000 must receive Legislative Assembly approval.

When a debt is forgiven, no further collection action shall be pursued.

The forgiveness of certain debts being proposed in this act will not require a new appropriation. Allowances for doubtful accounts were charged to an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have revisited this policy. Looking at the direction different departments are in, we felt there needed to be some consistency taken into account here. We've made the necessary moves and made a couple of allowances for operational issues. So the whole fact of lieu time is something that we have. Just having 75 hours in place is to try and help the employee morale and allowing them to take extra time off, not just annual leave earned. So it is something we've tried to address, we've tried to be flexible, but at the same time we have to look at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, in fact, as we pulled human resources together and looked at the departments and how they were managing their lieu time activities, we found there was great inconsistency between departments of how it was banked, how much could be used, if it was refillable, how much could be carried over from calendar year to calendar year, and a decision was made, in working with the other departments, that we did need to bring some consistency back to this and establish the 75 hour amount per year. We also do recognize that, in fact, not all occupations are the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we can show on a number of fronts where we take very seriously the issues that employees face who work for us here in the Government of the Northwest Territories no matter what department. We have looked at this. We need to bring some consistency back. We have tried to be flexible where operational requirements are looked at, and feel that this is the avenue we need to work with for the time period and see how it works out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.