Sandy Lee

Could I ask the Minister who is in charge of picking delegates in Yellowknife? Where would the NGOs or persons who might want to participate in this program or in this workshop from Yellowknife go in Yellowknife to find out whether they could be picked as delegates or not?

Inaction and omission is also inaction. The Minister is getting around this rule by saying well we're coming to you now and we're saying we want to do it in another place. I don't think that is what the spirit of what this rule is.

I've always thought that myself, as a Member of this Assembly, comes here and we review our budgets, we debate our budgets, and we vote on that. I have to have comfort when I'm leaving this place that the money that I voted on will be spent the way it was voted on. The government should not be allowed to just hold off and not even have to bring to us any...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think it’s absolutely appalling, Madam Speaker, that the Minister would say that for political reasons, not even in this House but on the Cabinet table, that they could move a capital project as big as $2.4 million for political reasons. I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance, as a Finance Minister in charge of numbers, whether he’s asked for any information in making his decision about what extra costs would be for the government in moving this program. Thank you.

I am sorry, I didn’t catch all that. Does the Minister have the dates of when this will happen, other than it will happen in June? It is June 1st.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On that item I agree also that the proposal now to move this to another community and to use the money to renovate another building is definitely a change in scope. But I want to also point out that when the Minister gets the money from this Assembly and chooses not to spend, that definitely is a change in scope; a change in the nature of the project.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I learned via some people in the TTC that apparently DPW came by and poked about 82 holes in this building and never really came back and told them what was right or wrong with this building. In the meantime, the political masters are trying to figure out what to do with this.

I would like to state, Madam Speaker, when we are debating the budget in this House, Ministers fight tooth and nail for every dollar. Members on this side cannot change anything. They convince us that they need this; the sky will fall if it just doesn't get approved. Then we...

Are we going to recoup the fees and payments to get them started, or is that like operating core funding? I am talking about the $328,000 under fees and payments.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are also to the Minister of Finance and it is not in regard to an item before the Committee of the Whole, but in regard to the budget for 2004-05 which has passed. It is in regard to the money for TTC. Madam Speaker, it is only yesterday, I believe, I finally figured out that the money that this Assembly had voted on, as Mr. Braden had stated, $2.4 million was in fact not spent. It was last November that the government started looking at the possibility of moving this. My general question is how do we as MLAs have any confidence that...

Could any of the Ministers indicate whether it’s the plan of the government to buy the equipment necessary for bailing, crushing or whatever you do for recycling products? I thought the plan was to get local groups to bid for it and if they do get it, I thought they would buy the equipment and make these projects work. Can I get that information, please?

Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to finish my statement.