Joe Handley

Mr. Chairman, it's an ongoing contract that we would have to terminate when we no longer need the services. So there is new contracting happening.

Mr. Speaker, there are some franchises that have terminated and have not yet been signed off, but we are in the process of doing that. To my knowledge, there really isn't anything that would prevent someone from coming in and setting up a competing structure if they wanted to. In most situations, they would have an incredible task on their hands if they wanted to handle both generation and distribution. Mr. Speaker, I expect that if they were to try and set up a whole new system or duplicate a system, the Public Utilities Board may also come into play on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, it is very important for Aboriginal Affairs to keep in touch closely with all the departments who have an interest in anything that is being negotiated. There are monthly negotiation reports that go out to each department. I think this is an item that's on the agenda regularly with deputy ministers. There is also a caucus or a meeting before each set of negotiations happens, so we do view it as important to maintain that contact with the program departments. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the main piece of this is with the nurse educator mentor positions. In many cases we found that there were difficulties in finding the individuals to hold these responsibilities in the communities. In some cases we also had situations where we might have a nurse educator mentor, but not have a graduate placed in that particular community. So there were difficulties in utilizing this money effectively. Reducing the budget in this area does not impact on the ability of the Department of Health and Social Services to deliver the program. In fact, they are in agreement and are...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled, Deline Self-Government Agreement-in-Principle. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Chairman, I will have Mr. Warren give more detail if you want, but it is the advice on a national devolution strategy and communications related to that. Mr. Chairman, if the Member wants more detail, I'll ask Mr. Warren.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know exactly what we spent on the report, but the preparation of the report and a lot of related and subsequent research that was done on that report cost the government, I believe, somewhere in the neighbourhood of $700,000. But that included more than just preparing the report itself. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Chairman, if I understand the question correctly, other departments also have expenses related to negotiations and self-government talks and so on, RWED being one of the main ones. We don't have any plan to bring that into Aboriginal Affairs, but would rather leave that with each department to determine when they have to send people, how many people they would send for issues that directly affect their department. So the intention, for example, with RWED would be to leave those expenses in the department that is responsible for forestry or wildlife or whatever the issues are that they...

Mr. Chairman, each Cabinet Minister gets $1,500 a year non-accountable. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I believe every policy or practically every policy of this government has had a similar provision in it that allows the Executive Council to make exceptions where those are warranted. Mr. Speaker, in situations like this one we run into two objectives. One is to have adequate, affordable housing and the other one is to have maximized northern economic opportunities. We often have to deal with both of these and we don’t want to compromise one more than the other if we can help it. In some situations we have to decide which one is the highest priority. In this case, Mr. Speaker, it...