Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The confirmed budget with contingency is targeted now at $37.4 million.

The issue with the health boards is that in trying to get the numbers, some have not been able to provide the additional numbers, so there may be some additional summer students out there that we’re not aware of. The other area is we’ve given them budgets to operate within and we’ve given them the authority to make those decisions, as well. We’ll try to get all the information so that we have fully updated numbers as we progress. I know the Department of Human Resources works with all departments to try to pool all those together and we’ll continue to do that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Every day our employees deliver critical programs and services to the residents of the Northwest Territories. The Premier’s Awards recognize this outstanding service and celebrate the extraordinary achievements of those employees who demonstrate excellence and innovation in meeting the objectives of work as a government.

Earlier today I was pleased to present the 2011 Premier’s Awards to 36 such dedicated public servants and 20 external collaborative partners.

Three team awards were presented in the 2011 season recognizing:

the creation of the Good Building Practice for...

I believe we will be there this summer, with a total of five between the two departments.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have one that is hired and two positions that are in the process of being filled within Executive. Within Aboriginal Affairs I have two working in the department and another P1 in the process, as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The time has come again where representatives from Statistics Canada have fanned out across the Northwest Territories to complete the national census.

The Government of Canada is required to conduct a census of the population every five years. Historically, the census has been composed of two mandatory parts. The “short form” questionnaire which includes questions on a number of people in the dwelling, their age and gender, and information on languages, and the “long form” questionnaire which looked at more detailed subject areas such as Aboriginal identity, education...

We started our work early in the life of this Assembly with issues around stabilizing funds to NGOs and we categorized a number of groups that would fit into core programs that we deliver, that made sense as to looking at some growth in expenditures in those areas, and some adjustments were made. As we review the work that’s done in our contracts, some of the things we have to look at is the use of those programs and increase in forced growth as we would categorize it is how that might fit into our business planning cycle. It is, in a sense, by department and by area of responsibility and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a number of layers of agreements that are put in place and there are a number of multi-year agreements in place. It is department by department. The issue becomes, one, if a program is under review, then there’s a hesitancy to get into multi-year agreements. Thank you.

Right from the earliest days of the first discussions between the Government of the Northwest Territories, the federal government and Aboriginal parties that established working relationships through the Aboriginal Summit and through the Intergovernmental Working Forum, through providing resources and dollars and people to help repair, in fact, I would say the agreement-in-principle is an example of those type of resources. That document was improved by Section 6 of the agreement that would put a government-to-government relationship and how we work together going forward in these matters. The...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are working to continue to try to improve the outlook as to Aboriginal participation in the agreement-in-principle stage. Since signing the agreement, we have corresponded with all of the leaders to have them come back to the table. I have also corresponded with them in that same communication about going into their region and communities to go over the agreement-in-principle, much like we did up in the Sahtu when we met with the community representatives of Deline, Tulita and Norman Wells. We’re awaiting the next response as to another meeting. I’ve just received...