Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I had spoken to this earlier around the work that's going on with the human resource service centres. I have to agree with much of what Ms. Lee has mentioned of the reasons why we want to do this; about the coordination, about staffing, the working together and the opportunities that would provide.

As I stated earlier, the first phase is about the mechanics of this, to make sure we set it up right to get the job done and done appropriately, and, as well, to make sure that we're meeting the timelines that we're supposed to meet. There are too many...

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Again, as we go through this and come up with the work, we’ll be sharing that work with the Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the government does, through another section, regulate honorariums that would be set up for different boards and agencies that would work for us or work under us, but not under this section. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First off, coming from the side that I do on the financial side, if there wasn’t support for the secondary industry from this government, the first and quickest way of cutting our losses would have been to liquidate the operations when this first came up. But as the government has chosen to continue to support the secondary industry, we’ve entered this and requested the courts to step in and have the receiver begin doing their work. The receiver entered into a process of basically going out to tender, putting out a package and having those that were interested...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’ll have to get that detail for the Member, but again, the way the Power Support Program is run, anybody paying higher than the Yellowknife rate would qualify for the subsidy and that’s the basis that we’re working on here. We’ll get confirmation of that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t believe there’s a need to back off on this one. As we go through the next process, we will be able to get started on it this year coming up and begin that process. So I don’t believe it’s a backing off. It’s a matter of getting started and ensuring we are heading down the right path. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I guess it’s one thing we can say in the North and the rest of Canada is that the diamond industry is small in our jurisdiction and the word and rumours spread fast about what’s happening. We’re aware there’s significant interest with the operations. As well, the way it’s been working through a court appointed receiver, the receiver will have to make those contacts, look at what the results of those contacts can bring and then advise us of what the potentials are. If there’s a deal to be had, they would recommend a movement on that and whatever deal is...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for that question because it will help clarify the terminology being used. It would be the Yellowknife rate that would be worked with, not the base rate, as the Member has clarified, that exists now in the rates that are adjusted and established by the PUB. It would be the Yellowknife rate and adjustments from that. That’s the policy decision that we’re following. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that’s not the formula we use. In fact, within FMBS, we go through a zero-base exercise. It’s quite a process and we’ve made a new binder to bring forward just on that aspect alone. The difference that we see here is that it’s difficult to compare actual dollars to main estimate, but we’ve also added responsibilities in this year going forward. We know we will require more travel and that’s why we’ve kept it at the same amount, but there are additional responsibilities and there’s going to be an additional requirement to travel, especially if we continue...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is right; as we initially met, I referenced the fact that we were waiting on waivers to be signed. As has it, with lawyers involved from a number of different parties, that hasn’t gone as smoothly as we would have liked it to. But they will be executed today. Once those are executed, then the receiver can once again go out there and seek other interested parties or return contacts that other interested parties have made. Thank you.