Floyd Roland

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the work around the Yellowknife Airport and the discussions with CATSA were ongoing for quite some time. The department had hoped to conclude their discussions with CATSA to include it into the normal building cycle. Our concern was that as a result of what was being required around the baggage handling system, it was going to have further impacts on the facility and we were trying to secure more funding. Those discussions, unfortunately, carried over the timeline that would have allowed them to go into the previous business plan process when a decision was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the civic leave section of the human resource manual states that civic leave is for those that are entitled to the treaty or have treaty status in the Northwest Territories and it is quite clear. It hasn’t been an issue raised to me in the past, but it does state that Dene employees with treaty status would request one half-day leave per year to attend treaty celebrations in their community. That can be granted. So it is clear at this point, but I guess what I am hearing is that there is a concern that it should be eligible to status Dene whether they...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, what happened here is that the original amount was approved under O and M. It is for capital work. It is being transferred over to the capital side, so it is just being registered as a negative here. It is not being taken away and the money reduced. It is being transferred to the capital program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maybe I will have the Minister of Health and Social Services provide a response to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, part of the other end of this is from the insurance side in ensuring that we don’t sustain major losses. Risk assessments have been done in a number of areas to ensure our facilities are safe, that we have the proper procedures in place, and that in some cases we’re not over insured as well as not under insured. Also ensuring that they’re safe to go in because we sure don’t want to be caught in the situation where we lose any more. Thankfully there were no injuries as a result, beyond that of the fireman who was trying to help extinguish the fire that...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I would like to thank the member for raising questions around this issue again so that I could provide committee with information as to the actual process and to clear the air that, in fact, estimates were done but they were not used. As a result of the questions that came out from members of concerns raised and some very strong suggestions that something should be done, we have gone back and requested more information and I would be willing to provide committee members with the responses that we received from the Department of Health and Social Services. I...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the Yellowknife office space for medical staff support, that’s to do with the Frame Lake Medical Clinic expansion to make room for more doctors that have been hired here in the capital. So it’s to make room for them.

The one for Inuvik is not with the existing hospital. Right now, those services are held outside in a different facility and they are doing renovations to fit in the 17 positions that have been there, but they’ve used other office space that they are now trying to upgrade to match the needs of the work being done. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As a result of this we did go back and look at our operations from the Public Works side and reviewed the practices that were being used, looked at other buildings in the territory that were constructed at the similar time, that had similar design and looked at, again, the operations that we did of O and M or maintenance. Those that we’ve felt that we had to have a closer look at, there was further inspection just to make sure that we did not find ourselves in that area, and maintenance procedures were looked at. In those places where we felt that there may be a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue of civic leave has come up with respect the overall policy, and I have done a review and discussed with my Cabinet colleagues the potential issues and avenues that we had. It was felt that we leave it at the existing stage. Now it becomes an issue more of making sure that the implementation is the same across the board. So we have looked at it and feel that we are fairly generous. We have to be careful here, because it can go either way with the review, either tightening it up and making it very rigid or making it too loose and have a hard...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this budget does allow for about $250,000 for the removal of the vertical tank and the access vaults and a portion of the three resupply lines, and then $25,000 provided for the remediation of some of the soils in that area. Thank you.