Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, one of the requirements to qualify under this is that an annual financial report would be provided to the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. As well, I should state that the practice of cost sharing just between the government and ourselves is one level, but as well from the organization to the harvester it’s not a full purchase of equipment, it’s cost shared at that level as well. I can ask the Minister responsible to provide more detail on that reporting requirement. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member is right. The program ceased, but there were still a number of people who were part of the original program. They were grandfathered. This program is no longer available. It was just those that were left on the list when the program shut down. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, an employee is eligible for up to 15 days annually. That amount cannot be booked or gone over. It is fairly clear there that there are 15 days. That can be broken down into whatever number, a half-day at a time, a few hours at a time, and put into practice that way. There isn’t a process in place to say that they met during lunch hour and need to take a different time for that process. That isn’t built in. If their meetings go over, and it is part of the allowable reasons for civic leave, then, again, it would be just a matter of applying for the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this portion is our share of it. It’s cost shared with the Fort Smith Metis Council. I don’t have a copy of the actual proposal that was put in and what the intention of the funding is. I believe the Minister of RWED does have some information on that though.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We are purchasing the units back from our employees. This is the tail-end of a program that was in place by the government where we tried to encourage employees to buy units in communities. If they were transferred or left their positions, then we would buy back the houses. The residual number of units were transferred over to the Housing Corporation when the program shut down. These are a number of the last units. I don’t have the actual number. There are not many left, but this is fulfilling our end of those agreements. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when the plan came forward, there was no identified office space. It was a plan that we knew would go into gear. We had approved the money for the O and M side to hire the lawyers, to have the other staff in place, that we would be needing office space. Based on the design of what would be required, there was an estimate made of the needed alterations to any office space out there, and based on that we had approved it because it was needed to get it in place, to have the doors open potentially by October 1st. We know now that that's not what happened...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have started our work as a government to bring all departments and boards into line when we deal with our human resource issues. We have begun that work to ensure that. The rules that we have in place are interpreted the same way across the board. We have heard the concerns before and are starting to do some work in that area and bring it into line. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The program itself was originated back in the days of the 13th Assembly, I believe, 1994. A program was initiated. The total amount of the program was for $15 million and eligible groups were able to apply for it. A formula was established based on the general hunting licences held by each region. That split out that money. It had to be matched by the organization. So if an organization wanted to see this, they had to come up with their dollars and it had to be put into a separate account and then they could start accessing it for those harvesters. The amount that’s...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I will provide the numbers; sorry about that. The first one was $60,000 for health authority, Fort Smith, for the community counselling program. The birthing room was $90,000. Inuvik improvements to office space for positions were $355,000. Office space for medical and support staff was $350,000. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the reason that it’s come forward in this manner is that there is a large backlog of work that needs to be done to get this facility up and running. This avenue was chosen to try to meet those needs and the timing of it. It was felt that this needed to be done to meet the needs of the public interest in this area. Thank you.