Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in this second year, or second budget as Members of the 15th Assembly, even though the fiscal picture is somewhat turning around, we still have to manage the government in a way that would see us operating more efficiently with what resources we do have. We are not out of the woods yet, as they say; there is no guarantee that things won’t change as quick as they have changed in the last six months.

When we put this plan together, our fiscal picture was still the same, even after the fall meeting with Members. The picture didn’t change until late in that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, again, once the project has been approved through the Assembly and the dollars are approved, the sponsored department -- in this case it would be Municipal and Community Affairs -- would look at the work. If they had the expertise and decided to follow through with their own process, we would have very limited involvement. They could call us in if they wanted to get some specific areas of information from us or they could call us in to manage the project, as well. So there are a number of different ways that can flow. But I guess I can commit to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is referring to, I believe, the staff retention policy that we have as a government. When a term position comes up, it usually means that that job is no longer there for an employee or else there is a returning employee coming back to that position. We do, through staff retention, put affected employees on a list and when openings do come available, they would be slotted in, according to their work history and background, to see if in fact they could be fitted into a position that would become available to them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Tomorrow never comes, they say. But in the area of the work and evaluation and keeping a check on the impacts within the GNWT, it's full cost recovery and it’s adjusted on a very regular basis to ensure that we are getting everything from the government facilities that are out there that are using the service.

On the community side, for supply of fuel to the community, individuals, that would be done regularly, but one of the things we do is look at the stabilization fund. Once we start to see it creep up in that area, we would make a decision as to whether we would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of the 70 positions, 45 are not identified as Hay River. Mrs. Groenewegen is obviously including the casual positions into that equation. What we have counted as 70 positions are full-time positions. Either they have persons working there or vacant positions. In our numbers it is approximately 27 that Hay River is losing out of this scenario.

While I won’t go into what discussions Ministers had around the table, the scenarios that were brought forward by each Minister and the department were discussed. Concerns were raised either requesting the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, again in the example the Member has brought up around the school and its facilities, when it comes to washrooms and the water facilities, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment would have to establish the project. The work that would be required to either renovate the existing facility or once they’ve identified what work needs to be done, we would become involved in doing a bit of the feasibility work where is it worth renovating or is it time to get into a new facility. Once that work is done and goes through the capital planning process...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the casual employees would be hired on the basis of less than six months. That’s a normal thing for short term, summer employment, short projects that staff or departments did not have enough personnel to do the work. That’s the area of the casual employees, as well as a number of departments who do have a number of casuals when it comes to filling in for facilities that are on a 24-hour operational basis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the reason we have our stabilization fund is to sort of limit the cost of the product to a certain degree. Then as we start to get to that ceiling, we would put in a request to FMB for a change in the price setup. But the idea is cost recovery, not on the market situation. So as Mr. Aumond stated, some of the issues that we look at as we go forward…But each community, again, the cost of delivery of the product and the commission charges of the contractor are taken into consideration. For example, on October 1, 2004…There hasn't been a big change in...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Joe Handley will be absent from the House today to speak at the Arctic Gas Symposium in Calgary. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, again, the process would be the responsible department, once there’s agreement there that there’s additional space required, would put their plan for that space into the system. If it was approved and dollars were attached to that and identified and approved through this budget process, we would then get involved through Public Works and Services' side on issuing and getting the engineering work done, architectural work and then issuing the contracts for that construction and doing the inspection to the final phase where the building would be turned over...