Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our fiscal responsibility policy that we put forward to the federal government, and how we deal with the federal government, is based on their terms that this overpayment situation has occurred. They're aware of it; they have the repayment plan that affects every jurisdiction. It's the same plan. It's a three-year plan, and it's also based on your population, of how much is repaid on an annual basis until the third year, which is coming up in the next fiscal cycle we have.

Everything we do is processed in accordance with the rules, and so on. So I think...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Member for that awe-inspiring question.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, this issue is not a new one. We've been trying to deal with this, and how we can deal with our federal counterparts around this issue. We have looked at a number of issues around our fiscal policy, and what we've looked at putting forward is a fiscal responsibility policy that would look at the overall fiscal situation of the government, our ability to borrow and finance that borrowing.

The issue of the overpayment itself, as the Member stated, was a decision made by a previous...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, I won’t be following on my colleague’s statement about student financial assistance.

---Laughter

Instead, with it being Friday and knowing that the Pages that have been serving us here in this House for the last week are from Inuvik, I thought I would just recognize their efforts and the time they have spent with us. I have heard from many Members how they liked the service they provided, and how polite they are. That shows you that the students from Inuvik are representing their community well here. I would like to recognize the six Pages we have here. Both Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we can look at doing some information packages that would be done in the aboriginal language of the regions. Again, we are going to rely on a fair bit of support through community delivery agencies. We have passed information out there about the change. Obviously, that comes up short. We will look at what package we can put together. I am willing to discuss with Members what might be the best move in getting that information out, and work on it from that end of it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from the petroleum products division itself we are not providing any subsidies to individuals out there. There are a number of other programs within other departments that do help out people in the North. One is the seniors' fuel subsidy; another, through income support, possibly, would be a hardship allowance. Again, that is income tested.

What we have done in the petroleum products division is to try to offset the increased cost of home heating oil. Within our stabilization fund, there was enough funding there to lower the price or keep the price from...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to introduce and recognize somebody in the gallery, my constituency assistant, Dan, from Inuvik; Brenda Dillon; as well as also recognizing Mr. McLeod’s constituency assistant, Meeka Kisoun.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we can work on doing an information package that we can put out there. We can possibly look at what immediate ways we can get it out to the people, whether it is flyers or something like that. I think we have to, again, recognize the cost of getting information out there. I think we can look at trying to get a package out there that is fairly straightforward as to what the impacts are. The difference would be, now that we have changed the full cost recovery model where we are paying for the basic prices of product, the taxes that are applied to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the area of petroleum products, notification was sent out to Members, and notification was given out to communities, that an increase was coming effective April 1st. That increase is a result of two things. First, we have gone to a full cost recovery model for pricing of products in communities. That means that the cost of delivering that product to a community is what is going to be charged at that community going forward. In the past, there was a different model used where some communities that had larger volume sales were offsetting the higher...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to introduce Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act. The petroleum products division of the Department of Public Works and Services was established in 1972 to provide fuel sales dispensing and delivery services in those communities not serviced by the private sector. The petroleum products division currently provides these services in 15 communities across the Northwest Territories.

The petroleum products division administers the petroleum products revolving fund under the authority of the Revolving Funds Act and the Financial Administration Act...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, it’s a case-by-case review of what we are looking for. In this case, we were looking for office space. We are familiar with the community and went to the department with our own staff there on the ground in the community and did an assessment of what is available in that community and if it would meet the requirements for that particular office space. We were informed that there was only one suitable location available to us. On that basis, we made a decision to go to a sole source process. So it’s case by case. If there are other opportunities out there, if you...