Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is $550,000 stated for materials and supplies, which is a huge sum of money. It could mean anything. It could be a pen and pencil to whatever the recycling equipment may be. Perhaps that’s what this is about. I would like to know more details about what the money is going to be spent on. Thank you.
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.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This has been in the works for many, many years. It is going across two assemblies. The laws on these were approved in the last Assembly. It was started at the beginning of that Assembly almost, and it is quite frustrating actually to see that this is still not off the ground. I would like to know from the Minister what is the problem. Should we have put more resources there? It seems like the negotiations for depots have been going on forever. Regulations have been written forever, like for two or three years. It was something that was concrete and seemed to...
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...
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just want to ask some questions, not on a specific item, although obviously reference will be made to it. On this issue of the government coming back to us to approve something that has been approved before in principle, I think that as a budgeting process that has to be reviewed.
Mr. Chairman, we have a rule in this House where normally we are not allowed to revisit things that have been decided on. We are not allowed to revisit a new motion unless it is to be rescinded. So why is it possible, why is that part of the process that a capital project as...
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...
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess that is pretty clear here, but I think there are, and I am wondering if the Minister or the government has any plans to invite those groups who might be based in Yellowknife but share an NWT focus, whether they be chambers of commerce or numerous NGOs who might have particular work or objectives that although they are based here, they are not really Yellowknife groups but are territorial-wide based who might have something useful who could gain from these workshops or to be able to contribute to these workshops. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to finish my statement.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to be supporting this motion and in my comments I really do not want to express in that this is a Yellowknife-versus-other-communities issue. I don’t think that sort of debate enhances the work that we do in this Assembly, and I hope that in all decisions I make in this House that it is not ever about one community versus another community.
I am sympathetic to those who lost their jobs in Hay River. I don’t think that because Hay River people lost jobs now it’s time for Yellowknife people to lose their jobs so that the Hay River people could get their jobs...
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?