Floyd Roland

Thank you, Madam Chair. It would be more a reflection of prior year adjustments that would show up in your 2002-2003 actuals. Our concern is that we continue to be affected negatively. As stated, the estimates of this year coming from Canada are reflected on previous year's corporate tax numbers and personal income tax numbers. So that accounts for some of the changes in the numbers you see here.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The last check we've done, we feel we're still secure. One of the reasons that we end up holding these guarantees is because it is considered a new industry in the Northwest Territories and the banks themselves are nervous to go in and loan without the backup of our government when these companies go forward. So we've done what we feel we can with due diligence and ensuring that we're protected, but there is risk attached to that and we see the result of one of those occurrences where we've had to make an agreement to receive the principal back but forego the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As announced yesterday, the Honourable Joe Handley will be absent from the House today to attend the federal/provincial/territorial Intergovernmental Affairs meeting in Montreal, Quebec. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The actual reduction of the six positions, a number of them were cost shared with Nunavut. So they wouldn’t be fully burdened costs on our part. So the reduction of those isn’t the total amount. When you take into comparison the average increase as a result of the collective agreement changes, the net difference is still an increase for the number of employees we have within the Financial Management Board Secretariat. Thank you.

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, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would gladly receive input from residents across the Territories on what we could do to save dollars for government and for the people overall as taxpayers. Mr. Speaker, one of the problems we had again was the timeline and choosing to come forward and have a full budget by the end of this fiscal year -- that's the end of this month – which put us under some severe time constraints as to what we could do. One of the processes I will follow, besides the fact that we will be working with Members and the northern leaders next month as we lay out and give...