Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again the Member likes to work in generalities of issues that don’t seem to work in the way he’d like to see them work, I guess. I know it’s a politically sensitive area. The fact is, this Assembly agreed in the House that this project be transferred to another community. With all the issues around it, it still had the approval of this House. Ultimately, once that project was redefined in the sense of where it was located, the department came forward then to follow the next step of the work that had to be done. Public Works did a report, sent it back to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In a specific request as we’d look at variances or the request for further funding, again, each organization would approach the department responsible for the particular area they are delivering a service and put their requirements in. The department would then, as part of their forced growth submission for the upcoming year, include them in their forced growth submission. So, for example, if an NGO was working with the Department of Health and Social Services or a board, one of the health boards out there, they would put in their request and if the board is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated, the issue of the employee of the Government of the Northwest Territories seeking employment outside of their responsibilities, ultimately a decision is made by the deputy of that department to give them the okay. Once that’s granted, they're free and clear until an issue may come up that has to be addressed again. It’s a case-by-case review by the deputy. I will provide the actual policy, to be clear to the Member, that deputies would have to use. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the area of multi-year funding agreements with non-government organizations or NGOs, as we reference them, is something that we have looked at and we have worked with departments to try to identify areas of how we improve in this area. We do have an avenue where we can do that. Of course, every multi-year agreement is dependent on the Assembly’s approval of the year’s budget that comes up. We are also looking within our Financial Administration Act to review where we’re preparing to come forward to this House with a rewrite of that act and looking at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when an employee of our government wants to seek employment outside of their normal work, they would have to seek approval from the deputy responsible for their department and get the okay from that level. Before a government employee can work outside of their normal working hours, they need to seek that approval in writing from the deputy of that department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The fact is there is no tender out there. It has been recalled, as I stated already and as the Members are well aware. The communications within the departments were discussed. The choices were made by the Department of Health and Social Services. The Department of Public Works and Services went out for a tender on that. Further discussions, when it came up, realizing that it should not have gone out, that processes had to be followed, it was pulled back. The Department of Health and Social Services made a decision that it wanted to go down the replacement...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the normal process is, when a department has an approved project to have work done on and they come forward to Public Works and Services, they request information on, for example, if it is the best thing to do, is do a renovation, then we would provide a report on the things that would need to be done, location, ground conditions, foundation. So we do a report on the existing facility and come up with what potential work would need to be done as part of the renovation. As part of that, we would also look at the cost-benefit analysis. If, in fact, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the things we would have to do is review the contract that was awarded to Sun Life before we would go down that path, but I will commit to have a further review of this to see what some of the problems are and see if they can be resolved sooner. The understanding is that a meeting was held with the Pharmacy Association on Sunday and the Sun Life automatic billing system was one of the major topics. Again, the information we have is they will have a newer system in place by 2008, although the association would like that sooner and we understand why.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the service levels that we are performing to are improving daily. Yes, we have some outstanding files that we're working on and trying to improve. Yes, during the amalgamation process some of our existing employees, from September until now, have had to wait longer than is expected. We're tightening up those time frames and going to change our processes to make sure they get the information in an adequate amount of time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the fact is that the dollar value of the project remains the same, the community remains the same, the purpose of the facility remains the same and we’ve informed Members. As we said, a tender was issued in error; it was withdrawn. We’ve gone back to Cabinet, a letter’s been sent to Members, and a final decision. If the project changes in the sense of a higher dollar value, or changes the community again, that would have to come back for a vote in this House. The rest of the steps we’ve proceeded with and followed. Whether Members disagree with the...