Robert Villeneuve

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I was talking earlier in my Member’s statement about the lack of improvement, I guess, in the government’s Employment Equity Program and new human resources amalgamation that a few Members have brought up in the past to the Minister of FMBS. I guess my first question to the Minister with the human resources service level agreement that rolled out in 2004 on the performance recording process, if the level targets and their achievements have been documented in annual reports to date and if the human resource performances have been monitored to date. Is there any reports on...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just one more quick question. If you are going to run a sprinkler system through the library and the cultural centre and the Open Door Society offices, you don’t have to if you didn’t want to keep them open. So why incur that extra cost if the government isn’t going to recoup it somehow through their community capacity building initiatives or all this Northern Strategy money the government is throwing around, the gas tax money? Why don’t we get a contribution from the community on that portion of the building that we are paying for to keep them open? Why haven’t we...

Yes, I guess it’s quite obvious that the other community societies that are occupying that building comprise more than 50 percent of the whole building itself, just thinking about the building itself. Is the government going to be looking at ways to recoup any of this $3.5 million, or is roughly $2 million of that $3.5 million going as a grant-in-kind to all these societies, the historical society, the Multimedia Centre and the library? How much of that money is going as a grant-in-kind?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I haven’t been a resident of Fort Simpson for quite a number of years myself. I know basically the Deh Cho Hall inside out. I know it’s an old building. Half of it is storage space. I don’t think the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the education council, Justice and community wellness are all departments that take up…Some of the offices in there are 20 by 40 feet offices in that building. That’s way overkill. I think that the government could use something that is probably half the size and just as functional for the same cost. Just a question to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I won’t speak too much about this anymore until we find out what happened and what kind of a strategy rolls out of this. Maybe I just want to ask the Minister when is this strategy going to come to some fruition, I guess, and when is the summit going to happen? You know, another caribou summit, aboriginal summit, housing summit; you know, every time there’s a crisis situation, let’s have a summit. So anyway, what’s the deadline for this strategy anyway? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the $222,000 be deleted from the Department of Transportation airports activity in Supplementary Appropriation, No. 1, 2006-2007. Mahsi, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I can understand that, but didn’t we save any money on the winter ice road maintenance because of the short winter ice road season? Isn’t there some kind of a balance? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I’m sure a lot of the other Members here would agree, I couldn’t stress the importance more of having an independent, objective review committee in place to do this whole human resource amalgamation review, to do a review of the Employment Equity Program, to do a review of the Affirmative Action Program. I think that would be something that this government has got to prioritize and ensure northerners that the review committee is going to be at arm's length from this government to ensure there is objectivity, and I don’t think northerners are going to accept...

Mr. Speaker, affirmative action, employment equity, it’s all the same to me, but in the Human Resources Services Agreement that was drafted up in 2004 there’s continuous improvement where review teams will be established on a regular basis with the goal of reviewing the service performance and identifying opportunities for process and improvement, and the membership on the review teams will be fluid to reflect the issues of current interest or concerns, Mr. Speaker. I think that’s one of the most important aspects of this whole human resource amalgamation, is to make sure that, you know, we...

No, that’s fine.