Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just briefly, again how we work with our departments and deliver the programs and services to the communities is critical. I think you’ll see a better example when you go through Municipal and Community Affairs because they deal in municipal services and they can show fluctuations and changes for costs that weren’t planned for, but had to come up with the money to help address those concerns in the communities. Health and Social Services is the same thing. One of the other tools that’s out there is the supplementary appropriation where there has to be additions to it...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The change is a result of how the federal government treats that. Initially, it was combined under the Canada health and social transfer. They have now broken it down into the two pots there: the Canada social transfer and the reform fund. The actual breakdown and the lesser amount equates to the treatment that it receives under the formula and the taxation situation. For more detail, I will have Ms. Melhorn give that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since the agreement has been signed, the principal payments have been made. We have not had any problems in that area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Member for those comments. As well, I am aware that committees in previous assemblies were raising issues around that, how we would set up our functions and how much it would cost if we continued to operate with each department doing their own thing. So it is good to know that we have the support to continue down this path.

In the area of the human resources services centre, in fact, there has been some work ongoing. We’ve begun that exercise to look at how we can better perform and be more efficient and effective with the services we do...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I stated what FMBS does and how it budgets and provides that eight percent margin. Not all departments have that. Some departments don’t budget any vacancy amount, but I understand where the Member is coming from. Again, we are approving a budget and on those lines that they would be accounted for. So we’re going to do our part to ensure that what we identify for expenditures, those dollars are spent in those areas. If there’s a requirement to move them, we report back to the House. We even, for example, use interdepartmental transfers. So within a department you’re...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The initial dollars that go out for bottle recovery, I believe, are accounted for through the Liquor Commission. The Department of Finance does not account for the fees that are received by the depots through the other operations. They are paid for by the recycling companies in the south. We don't account for that in the Department of Finance numbers. Thank you.

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...