Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The $20 million forecast is yet to be discussed in the future budget. I will be going to Members and as the Member for Hay River South had asked earlier about potential options or suggestions, we are looking for suggestions to go forward. We have to look at all avenues that we spend our money on, all programs and services delivered by our government that we have flexibility in. We are going to have to look at those. Core programs and services are going to have to be maintained because some of those are required. They are statutory obligations that we have to meet...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The review of the Liquor Act is something we are in agreement with. It is a high priority for us. It is in need of a revision and review. That’s why we have highlighted it and are going to be moving forward with the process we established as Cabinet and committee in the Legislative Assembly. The Liquor Act itself will require work and some of the areas Mr. Braden has just touched on are areas we have to deal with as a government as a whole. I don't want to say another part of our government needs to take direction. As a government, we need to set that direction. That...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The increase in revenue of liquor sales on page 3-20 is not a result of taxes. It is a result of increase of volume sales and increase of the product from the suppliers. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to thank the Member for complimenting the people here with me, as they have worked hard to prepare the documents now and the main estimate the Member uses. As well, I would like to inform the Member I have been referring to the opening remarks I have made and I actually thanked my people here with me because they have worked hard to make sure I had the information to go over and make myself very familiar with this. So it is a team effort. Like what I have been saying about the process we are going to go in, it’s a team effort.

The grants and...

Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, for Bureau of Statistics, travel and transportation, $20,000; materials and supplies, $27,000; purchased services, $7,000; contract services, $5,000; other expenses, $5,000; computer hardware and software, $9,000.

Thank you, Madam Chair. All government assets are covered under our insurance program. We are self-insured for the first $10 million, but we do buy insurance for over and above that. So on an annual basis, if we had losses of some small equipment in a community or region of a few hundred thousand dollars, we would end up paying for the full shot of replacement. That would happen until we hit the $10 million figure. Then we would kick into our insurance program that we paid for. So it’s a cumulative amount. It’s not going to be on every case, but it adds up to that first $10 million we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To do this right, I'll have to provide the Member with an actual accounting breakdown from the centre back to…When you pick up your product at the store you pay a fee. How that money is collected and then how local depots operate from that point forward we will supply that information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the interim, before setting up a formal process, I will commit to starting a process from within my office. If the Members are aware and have suggestions themselves or know of constituents who have some suggestions, they can contact my office directly. I will start a log as to what suggestions are being put forward, and respond to those that would send in their suggestions. So I'll start from my office and we'll work forward from there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have been working with Stats Canada to ensure that what happened in 2001 does not reoccur in 2006. So we have begun our discussions with Stats Canada in working with them to ensure that the under coverage that occurred in 2001 doesn’t occur again. We are being proactive in working with them in how we feel the previous one didn’t work for us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.