Paul Delorey

Thank you, Madam Chair. In the area of our fiscal arrangement with Canada on the formula financing agreement, I know that we are in the process of renegotiating that. I don’t know what the timelines are or where we are in finalizing that, but I would like the Minister to tie in…The first bullet is finalizing the discussion with Finance Canada and changes to the formula financing agreement, then the fourth and fifth paragraph deals with providing taxation for formula financing input and resource revenue sharing discussions with Canada and aboriginal governments. There are two bullets that...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a few comments. Everybody is tying the opening comments and the budget together. I just wanted to mention a few things. The Minister is right when he says that yesterday was the first step, especially in these initiatives for revenue generating by putting it out there in the budget. It seemed to be accepted fairly well yesterday, I didn’t hear too much in the Great Hall afterwards.

However, I did get about three calls today that are very concerned about the government starting to introduce taxes. As soon as you mention taxes, we can do all of the explaining we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, do the records of employment all come from FMBS for the Government of the Northwest Territories or do other departments put them out? Do they all come through the same department? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the question was, is the Minister aware if the government still considers this policy to be beneficial to the government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if this is a government policy and it’s to be applied government-wide, how does the Housing Corporation get to waive the BIP on a contract that they put out? Who do they get permission from? Is it from RWED or is it from the government itself, the Cabinet? Where do they get permission to waive the BIP on a contract? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to bring up an issue that has been talked about for too long in the past government. Today we heard a budget address that addresses us going forward in a new direction and bringing prosperity to our country. The issue that I’m talking about, Mr. Speaker, is the BIP policy. I want to ask my questions to the Minister of RWED today, but I’m sure that this issue is going to be around now for awhile and eventually I’ll have some questions for the Premier on it.

Over the life of the 14th Legislative Assembly we spent probably two years going around...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ll try and change the subject a little bit.

---Laughter

Oh, no, we’re having fun here. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and draw attention to International Women’s Day that occurred last week on March the 8th. Mr. Speaker, since I was first elected over four years ago, I have always given recognition to this important day and to women in general, as I believe it is vital to draw as much attention as we can to the issue of gender equality.

I was looking over some interesting statistics provided by the NWT Status of Women Council. Mr. Speaker...

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.