Glen Abernethy

When situations like that arise, and if they arise, we are always happy to look at our contract to see what provisions exist with respect to payments to ensure that work is done in a timely fashion. If work is not done we are happy to hold back payment.

This utilities line covers electricity, fuel, water, garbage, sewage. I think that’s it. So far, like I said, in previous years we’ve had enough money to cover that. This year is going to be tight. We know with the spike in electricity costs that we’ll be pushing it and we will be coming to committee with a request for additional money to help us support the spike in electricity costs.

Before I answer the second part of the question, I’d just like to indicate that the policy does work when it comes to reporting individuals who have experienced harassment issues. We feel the policy actually works quite well. We’ve had a number of investigations. We’ve had a lot of mediations and other resolutions as a result of this policy, so it is helping our employees. But I do feel that the Member is correct. There are some challenges with getting more information out there and helping with prevention and promotion rather than just being responsive, so we will continue to work on that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we’d be interested in having those discussions and see what opportunities exist between our departments, Housing Corp and other organizations, where appropriate. We’d be interested in having those conversations.

In the 16 communities where we’re responsible for fuel, we own the tanks, facilities and fuel itself. As far as the delivery agent, the person in the community who is going to deliver it for us, we do a request for proposal and have community representatives and people from the North submit proposals on the price that they feel they can be the distributor of this product using our facilities for it. It’s basically coming from an RFP open, competitive, public process.

I would suggest that payment schedules are negotiated between our primary and their subcontractors. We don’t have a position on that subcontract.

That occurred in the previous Assembly, and I think as an MLA I remember having some discussions about that exact topic. If I remember correctly, the response at that time was that they made an effort to do an assessment of usage and costs, and transfer over the full amount. Can we say we got the full amount? In reality, hard to say, but they indicated they were going to do a full assessment to try to determine the costs and transfer over what was required to continue to pay the bills moving forward.

The training is more focused on the program itself and what the program can cover and can’t cover. It’s not necessarily an awareness campaign about bullying. I think that’s what the Member is referring to, but it’s more specific to the program itself, how it applies, who can utilize it, how to access it, and the steps the individuals would have to go through to utilize the process.

Public Works and Services obviously has some responsibility in paying bills and tracking those types of things, but for some more detail on where our power load is coming from, I will go to the deputy minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Give me a second here and I’ll get the breakdown of positions. As we’re looking for the actual specifics, we’ve got a number of petroleum products division staff. We’ve got a couple located here in Yellowknife, including the director, but the vast majority of the staff in the petroleum products division is located in Fort Simpson, in the Deh Cho. We’re still looking for the exact numbers. Once we get that, we’d be happy to provide that to you.

As Members know, when it comes to the petroleum products division, we work on a cost-recovery basis, not a profit basis where the...