Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the initial amount of 2002-2003 actuals of $936,000 is the amount we book for superannuation for, I believe, the Power Corporation and Workers' Compensation Board. The changing amount in the main estimates is the estimated amount of what would be required of us in the same area. The 2003-2004 revised estimates is a change in the grant-in-kind for staff housing; a one-time grant to staff housing. Again, that’s because we no longer have that program. I know Mr. Voytilla here was getting antsy because of the fear that program might come back to life. We do...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, they are reflected in these numbers.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Trying to pinpoint what it would cost ongoing, besides the fact that we're putting more money into the existing system now, we know there's a direct cost there. Delaying the decision to replace the FIS system is difficult to nail down, because as technology changes, maybe we can come up with a better system that may be a little less or it could get more expensive. It's difficult to measure that portion. What we can measure are the direct costs that we keep adding in trying to prop up the system we have now.

Recognizing that, it is a critical situation and at some...

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my immediate right is Mr. Lew Voytilla. He is the deputy minister for the Financial Management Board Secretariat. To my immediate left is Mr. Rob Taggart, director of policy and planning. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There’s going to be a need for government to have some flexibility to move some of the dollars around. But there are also requirements to report where you move the dollars around if they get to a certain amount of volume. We do, for example in FMBS, book approximately eight percent vacancy rate and that can be used, for example, for student hires, for summer employment and casual positions. There is some leeway as to moving that money around, trying to keep it in the same area.

With the amount of delivery of programs and services we have as a government, there’s going...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The last part of the earlier response was that the depots take care of the Molson and Labatts bottles through their operations and send them south for refund from those outfits. One of the factors involved in giving the handling fee to the depots as well as providing the refund to them is to pay the people that bring back the bottles and cans for returns, that is when they ship their containers south to recycling centres, they have to pay for the handling fees themselves. So the handling fees and freight are taken out of the earnings that they would receive from...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Member is right; there has been ongoing work in this area. The business case review has been completed and we are looking in the area of up to $15 million to replace that system. The next phase would be to go out and start trying to find a system that can replace the existing system, but it comes back down to the question if we don't have the dollars to do it, then there's no use going to that next stage. That's why you see us right now trying to make due and carry it a little bit longer. That decision is going to have to be made at some point...

I am pleased to be here today to present the Financial Management Board Secretariat’s 2004-2005 main estimates.

The 2004-04 main estimates propose total operation expenses of $27.377 million. This provides for a total increase from the 2003-2004 fiscal year of $518,000 and represents a 1.9 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.

The secretariat’s main estimates include:

a $371,000 increase to salaries and benefits associated with collective agreement changes;

a $130,000 increase to establish an equal pay research officer position that will monitor and analyze data pertaining to the...

Mr. Chairman, I did sign off letters yesterday evening in response to the Member’s questions in the House about the travel budget and what it amounted to. Within the FMBS it’s not a percentage per employee. The different sections within FMBS go through a process of planning what trips they would be required to be on and billed on that basis. There is a process used for coming up with estimates and requirements the department would have for travel. Again, that information should be in the hands of Members, if not today then very soon. I did sign off the letters showing the 25 percent reduction...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will go through what we are now handing out to Members. As well, I would just like to inform Members that as the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development moves forward on its recycling initiative, this portion of it will change because it will be incorporated into the program that is now going to be administered through Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.

So the information we have now is we currently have bottle return depots in Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Yellowknife, Inuvik and Hay River. In Norman Wells, a local volunteer group...