Joe Handley

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m sure that Imperial and its partners are still confident the pipeline is going to go ahead. They’ve spent $350 million or so, so far. They’re continuing to spend on it. It’s not a matter of confidence and we’re still confident it will go ahead. We’re going to work on that assumption. I believe the federal government will want to see it happen, too. So there’s a fair bit of confidence there. But what Imperial has done is slowed down their spending on it because they have to get over the hurdles on access and benefit agreements and on socioeconomic impacts, the...

Mr. Chairman, just for clarification, Minister Roland, Minister Bell and I met in Ottawa with the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of DIAND and Minister of Northern Development. At that meeting, we did not talk about specific amounts of money. We talked about the fact that socioeconomic impacts are primarily government’s responsibility, primarily our responsibility because those programs are within our mandate. But because we don’t have resource revenue sharing, there is an obligation of the federal government to provide us with money to be able to achieve our needs...

Mr. Chairman, an AIP is still possible this spring, and I am still pushing the federal government and the Aboriginal Summit to work with us on achieving that agreement-in-principle this spring. I can tell you though that as the days go by, I’m getting increasingly uneasy that we’re not going to be able to achieve it. We have to keep in mind this is a tripartite agreement. There’s the Aboriginal Summit, ourselves and the federal government who have to come to agreement. At the negotiating table there’s been less progress than what I would have liked to have seen, and I can’t blame any one...

Madam Speaker, it is a territorial facility. It is the only one, to my knowledge, that we have of that kind. There were a number of factors that caused us to have a look at it, including the fact that it is a territorial facility and there is a large potential capital investment that is necessary to replace the current facility to look at how our government is meeting the economic, social and other interests of people across the Territories. So, Madam Speaker, there are a number of factors we looked at in reviewing the TTC. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, no.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Yes, the policy looks at a number of factors, including the government's organizational design, its flexibility to deliver programs, best use of personnel, best use of fiscal infrastructure, delivery of the program closest to the people who are being served, equitable distribution of social and economic and employment benefits around the Northwest Territories.

Madam Speaker, there are a number of issues that we have to take a look at. No one of those would trump all of the others, it would be a matter of looking at everything and saying where can we best deliver the...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The government has a policy on government organization. That policy does outline how major organizational changes are made. In the case of moving a facility like TTC from Yellowknife, that would fit into the category of major organizational change. That’s a decision that’s made by Cabinet. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Chairman, I think that’s good advice, very good advice. We will certainly consider that as we get ready for the general assemblies and for our own trips out to communities where we are meeting with them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to recognize a constituent of mine, Jim Lynn from Detah.

Madam Speaker, I would like to provide Members with an update on the establishment of the Council of the Federation Panel on Fiscal Imbalance.

Earlier today, the panel was formally announced by current chair of the Council of the Federation Premier Dalton McGuinty.

This panel is an initiative lead by all Canadian Premiers. Its purpose is to examine the vertical and horizontal fiscal balances among federal, provincial and territorial governments in Canada and to make recommendations on how fiscal imbalances should be addressed.

If I may, Madam Speaker, when we speak of vertical fiscal imbalance...