Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If we had the money, it would be on our capital acquisition plan for this year. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I request we take a short break as we get the witnesses prepared.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when we sent the direction out to the departments to come up with a 25 percent reduction in travel, we used actual numbers that they had spent for travel. We wanted to make sure we got an actual amount, not a planned amount. We wanted to use actual numbers that were spent on travel, figuring that’s the most accurate way to proceed. That’s why it’s done in that way. We do have information, for example, within our envelope here we’ve looked at travel for the whole department and we’re looking at the total of about $452,000 of travel and that includes travel...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Once the bottles are returned to the depots, they are theirs to dispose of. As stated, the bottles are crushed and in different locations, different communities…I'll use an example I am familiar with. In Inuvik at times, instead of using crushed rock, they would use the crushed bottles in sanding areas. As stated, the depots have shredders that are supplied by the Liquor Commission. They shred them and send them to the southern facilities for recycling. Again, for Molson and Labatts bottles the depot is the one that deals with them, sends them south and gets any...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The way the power support program is structured today, I don't think that would be able to apply. But we would look at seeing how that could be incorporated into the power support program. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. No, the only ones we include here are actual operating mines that we can establish a property tax on. Those that are in the works now have not been included. Just to be clear, the 30 percent increase, we would do a comparison of the 2004-05 proposed mains to the 2003-04 revised mains because this one is now being assessed and added to the assessment role, whereas we have had the prior mine already included in there. So the increase from the revised mains to the proposed mains, 30 percent of that is due to the addition of the one mine. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as we go through this exercise and go through what would be the normal process, departments begin their budget process in June preparing for the business plan presentation to committees in September. At that time there will be much more detail involved. There will be a lot of information provided that normally doesn’t show up in the main estimates document. We can definitely include more information in the business plan process. It is a lot of information. There would be a lot more paper and to what detail do we want to get down to. I’m committed, as we...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We do have more information on bottle deposits in the NWT, and we can provide that hard copy to Members or I can read it off.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the power subsidy program has increased dramatically and, as we have highlighted, has grown over the years. A large part of that is the actual rates themselves have jumped significantly in a number of communities. For example, if you look at 1998-1999, the community of Lutselk'e used to pay 39.3995 cents per kilowatt hour. It is now at 73 cents per kilowatt hour. We have examples of that. The community of Rae Lakes in 1998-99 was 44 cents and is now up to over $1 a kilowatt hour. So a lot of the drive in that is the rate changes that have happened...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The number we are establishing right now is for current year and there could be slight changes as the taxation assessment role changes. So if there are new properties put on, for example, if more lot development takes place and houses are built in tax-based communities, that would show the growth in that area as well as any small changes in how the assessments are done in the value of properties, but it is forecast to go up by a small amount going forward. Thank you.