Sandy Lee

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don’t believe I got information as to what other costs there might be. Is that something that is within his knowledge? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I have some more questions on this item. First of all, I have questions about the use of special warrant. My last question last Friday dealt with this issue because my understanding of special warrant is an expenditure of something that is of an emergency nature. Given that this premise that the government has leased for this legal aid office is not in any way being renovated or opening, and given that we just had session in June…

I only have 10 minutes so I don’t want to use up all the time, but from a commonsense point of view, we understand when there...

Just to be clear on the 22 homes that were ordered, could the Minister be more specific about what the problems are? Is it getting the gravel there, or getting the stuff there, or are the people not being able to purchase those homes? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Members recall, we had a huge debate in this House in June. There was a lot of urgency there because the corporation felt it needed to meet the barge deadline. Now I’m being told that those units are not in place and this is almost the end of October now. So I’d like to know if the Minister could commit to holding off -- because I think there’s a second phase to this program -- any thought of ordering 22 more of them for next year, until this whole thing is revisited. Thank you.

Just say no.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure that this issue can be explained by a review. I really would think that it would be better for the Minister to explain what sorts of steps are in place to make sure that these two people can do their jobs independently and not be accused of interference, because I think that would be in their benefit as well. The second thing, Mr. Speaker, he talked about an internal review…

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps one suggestion I could make that would maybe discourage the Cabinet from approving these special warrants in between sessions when we are not here is to have session every month. We could have one week a month and then they’ll have to bring all their expenditure approvals to us. We’ll just have a Cabinet meeting with 19 Members so that we don’t have a special warrant for $4.6 million where we have absolutely no say whatsoever. I mean, I was crying fowl over $115,000, now we are dealing with multimillions. That’s one suggestion, which will go, I’m sure...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I totally appreciate what the Minister is saying and it is something that I have been thinking about for many months, many weeks now. It is true; I am giving the Minister an opportunity to explain what is happening in the department. It hasn’t anything to do with the individuals. I am telling the Minister that there are concerns, and I want him to explain to the House what he has done as Minister of Justice to make sure that all is in good order. It’s true; those two employees can’t explain themselves. I’m giving the Minister an opportunity to explain...

Just to clarify, I don’t know if I should do it in a point of order, Mr. Chairman. I would leave that up to you. I am very mindful of how we use information. I was only going with what Mr. Dent said earlier. He said earlier, if you’ll check the transcript, that he was expecting this office to be open by October 1st. It’s his words, not mine and I’m not quoting from what we said in committee.

The second thing is the price of the lease -- $395 per square metre -- was information given by Mr. Roland last Friday. So it’s in the transcript. I was not exposing any information from private or...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I want to tell the Minister and the senior management that of the people who are talking to us, many of them I consider to be the kind of people that we call the salt of the earth. I don’t just accept whatever everybody tells me. These are the people who have lived here for a long time; 26 or 30 years. They have worked in the correctional system. They know what they are talking about. I think it will do the Minister and the management a lot of good to listen to what is being said and try to enhance or improve the situation that...