Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Mr. Roland. They are to do with my Member’s statement with regard to a record of employment. As I have stated in my Member’s statement, this has gotten to be a bit of a problem. I have received complaints from a number of my constituents now that have experienced this, and the length of time it takes for them to get their record of employment after being employed with the GNWT. I would like to ask the Minister if he is aware of this problem and if there...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to make another comment and I don’t know if it’s totally appropriate on this page. I meant to do it under general comments and I didn’t. One Member was talking about the importance of looking at our Liquor Act and the review of the Liquor Act. I may come from a bit of a different approach than what he says, but I was wondering if the Minister could tell me has there been any money appropriated towards the review of the Liquor Act? You mentioned that it’s a high priority to look at the Liquor Act. How big of a review are we looking at making here? Has there...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just following up on that question where you talk about fines. These wouldn’t be fines that go through the courts then, would they?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Is all of the government under the self-insurance program now? Are all government assets under self-insurance programs now? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gets pretty frustrating when on one side I have a constituent who loses a contract because of a technicality. They say it's a government contract, we have to stick to the letter of the law, we can't make any changes and he loses a contract. Then I hear that on a business incentive policy contract, as a matter of going to Cabinet we can make an exception and we'll waive the BIP on it. I think we have to make a decision in this government of whether we're going to have a business policy or not. This is a government policy, and here we have the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier and they're to do with my line of questioning that I had raised previously. I would like to ask the Premier what direction he's given to his Cabinet Ministers when it comes to dealing with the business incentive policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s really unfortunate that we spent so much time on this very issue over the last four years and we have so many issues in front of us right now, big issues to deal with with this government, and I’m very much afraid that this issue is going to rear its ugly head again and take up an awful lot of our time. I’m aware of other departments that are looking at playing with the BIP, whether it’s the local preference or the 15 percent on different contracts. If this government has the BIP policy and if they feel that it’s an important policy to this government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if there are no changes to the business incentive policy, is the Minister aware of any of the departments within the government that are putting out contracts and not applying the business incentive policy to them? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to clarify, I am glad that my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen is finally recognizing her constituency assistant.

---Laughter

Sitting next to her is Jennifer Tweedie, a constituent of mine, and her mom. Jennifer is here to go through this unfortunate thing of having to come over here to give birth. So welcome to the Legislature.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Premier for those answers, but at the same time we have a policy that government follows, and that policy was put in place to benefit northern businesses, to encourage northern business to build capacity and be able to survive in the North. I don't believe that if Cabinet is going to take a view of this now that we're going to be picking and choosing on what projects we can apply the BIP on. For two years, we've been asking what is the cost to government and how much are we saving by doing this. We have not been able to see these figures yet...