Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask about the recent announcement of Diavik diamond mine with respect to the waiving of the cost or the contribution of the employees towards travel to and from their work, so now employees who reside in southern Canada do not have to pay anything towards that travel. Certainly there was a very extensive socioeconomic agreement put in place at the time that Diavik and BHP were coming online, and our government, I believe, worked very hard to ensure that maximum benefits to northerners through the socioeconomic agreement addressing things like...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister believe that industry representatives, i.e., the producers group, would be lead to believe that this fund, whatever it turns out to be that would flow to our government and aboriginal governments, is going to lessen their responsibility in terms of the negotiations on the access and benefit agreements that are being proposed by aboriginal governments up and down the valley? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, whatever the number was initially or might end up to be at the end of the day, was this amount of money considered to be some kind of an interim payment or down payment on a tentative royalty sharing program with the federal government? Is it considered a bridge or an interim down payment? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Bell.

Further Return To Question 14-15(4): Closure Of The South Slave Correctional Centre Remand Unit

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one thing I was never really clear about or assured of was in fact that when the change in operations was proposed that the Harrington Report, as it’s called, and the coroner’s report as a result of the suicide that took place in cells had been taken into account in terms of the operation changes, because I think the staffing of the remand centre, the way it was, was directly precipitated by those two reports. Can the Minister speak as to whether or not those things were taken into account when these changes were proposed? If they weren’t, would he commit...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice, the Honourable Brendan Bell. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the decision that the government proceeded with to close the remand unit at the SMCC in Hay River. This was given a lot of dialogue in the last Assembly and the last budget session and, as the Minister knows, there was a unanimous motion passed to support this. Unfortunately, it was dealt with in a way that the closure proceeded. But that being the case, Mr. Speaker, that’s kind of history now; but I still have questions outstanding...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. The staffing of the remand unit in Hay River and the additional staff to watch them had everything to do with an internal report and a coroner's inquest into the suicidal death of an inmate in custody at SMCC. I don't believe that that report and the recommendations of the coroner were sufficiently considered when this cost-saving initiative was contrived by the former Minister.

I think it would be in the government's own interest to ensure that we have not inadvertently put ourselves in a situation where responsibility for, God forbid...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I said that I wanted to follow up on more detail about the effects of the closure of the remand unit at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River. We knew that there would be a reduction in shifts available for casual employees. We knew that the number of indeterminate positions would be reduced by five if when they became vacant through attrition, and we knew that the projected savings of $400,000 was not realistic. What wasn’t quantified was the consequential effects that weren’t fully anticipated or wouldn’t be realized until the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I see this move as being regressive and counterproductive to what we’re trying to do, and that is to encourage people who work at the mines to live in the North, and everybody knows that the cost of living is higher here. I think that this move on the part of the company, I think they could have found other ways of compensating or increasing, enhancing the compensation of their employees other than this particular move. I’d like to ask the Minister how does he see this affecting other socioeconomic agreements that may be negotiated say for the Mackenzie gas pipeline...

Thank you. So the trip to Ottawa then to secure this bridge money in the interim here was postponed because of the vote that was taking place around the budget in the House of Commons. What is next? What is the game plan on the part of this government? I just don’t want us to drop the ball on it. Thank you.