Floyd Roland

Thank you, Madam Chair. My understanding of the breakdown of those costs is as follows: there were some renovations done and some work; Fort Smith health authority had $60,000 for an office for community counselling program; Fort Smith renovations for a birthing room; Inuvik improvements to office space for a social worker, home care, public health nurse, community health representatives positions; and, in Yellowknife for office space for medical and support staff. Thank you.

I have nothing further to that, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The first part of this, the $40,000 stated, is a result of a decision made that affects the Yellowknife Airport. We have to increase our baggage screening equipment and process. The second part of that, the $41,000, is the transfer of assets and the accounting of those assets for the Aklavik and Tulita old airport terminal facilities. The $400,000 involves much more that comes into play around the discussions the Department of Transportation has had with CATSA -- that’s the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority -- in the amount of work that needs to be done at...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, for the record, the original estimates that were done did show, in fact, there was going to be a substantial increase from the old facility. The attachment provided to members shows that, for example, electricity, the units that they would use, 2.8 million kilowatt hours, as well as unit cost of that, the heating costs of 25,000 gigajules and the unit costs for that. What happened was the original estimate was done in 1999. It showed a substantial increase. As the facility came online, there was another estimate done using newer information, and it showed...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. They are not new positions. They were providing services for the community of Inuvik, so they moved from the regional hospital. That’s my understanding. They were fit into an office space that was not designed for the program that’s being offered. This has been in the works for awhile but did not make the cut initially as the plans went forward, so they have come forward on this basis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that Bill 14, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 4, 2003-2004, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is not an increase in the actual premiums. This is a shift between the Department of Health and Social Services over to the Department of Finance. We found in a case where Health and Social Services was doing some of its own insuring we felt that there was a savings by transferring it over and this is the amount that we feel…It’s actually health boards, I believe, were insuring some of their own items. So we’ve pulled them into our total government insurance program, by that saving some numbers. But there is an added cost to their side of the equation and that’s...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the numbers that were provided were using just actual costs in comparison to where the costs are now. So it wasn’t budgeted based on the old hospital, just comparing the 2002-03 year with the actuals for 2003-04 to show the increases that occurred. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Supplementary Appropriation No. 2 requests authority for additional appropriations of $11.201 million for operations expenditures and $5.450 million for capital investment expenditures.

Major items included in this request for operations expenditures are as follows:

$4.7 million for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development for additional fire suppression costs incurred due to severe forest fire conditions in 2004.

$2.5 million for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for emergency repairs to Samuel Hearne Senior Secondary School in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess ultimately we’ve come down to the fact that there was an underestimating of the consumption of power and the gas, as well as maintenance required for the facility. The facility did double in size from just over 4,000 square metres to over 8,000 square metres. The new code requirements for air exchange units and air cooling systems add more to the cost of the ongoing daily operation of that.

For example, from 2002-03 to 2003-04 the heating costs increased by over 80 percent. Power consumption has more than doubled from just over one million kilowatts to just...