Sandy Lee

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to be clear, I just want to make sure. I would like to have confirmation from the Minister that this doesn’t have anything to do with the 22 mobile homes we bought to encourage the markets in communities so that employees who come up north to work could have places where they pay their own rent. I just want confirmation that this doesn’t have anything to do with that program. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. May I just ask the Minister as to whether this is a yearly increase or is it something that comes periodically? How often does the commission review the salary of judges? Thank you.

Thank you. I think it's open to debate whether or not there were any other spaces, but for now, Mr. Chairman, I just want to concentrate on this item in front of us, $115,000 for a lease improvement that was approved on August 22nd. What I'm gathering from what the Minister is saying is that this amount was approved in advance without knowing the details. It's an approximation of what it would cost to do lease improvements to make the space suitable for the office. Would the Minister say that there's a very good possibility that we may need more money to improve, especially given that...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand, from the information, $350,000 of $855,000 is being used for office renovations, but I still don’t have the information on the remainder of that $855,000. Could the Minister provide that, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With all due respect to all the people who are waiting in line for Legal Aid lawyers, we know this has been an ongoing thing for many years. We know the current practice is anything the Legal Aid clinic cannot handle, they get farmed off to private lawyers. That’s how this gets done. It’s quite troubling that something like this is done by way of a special warrant which really ties the hands of the members here because once this has been allocated, there is nothing we can do about it and $115,000 is gone. I have a problem with that and I believe the use of special...

Well, that is a lot of information. I appreciate that we went through this yesterday, but there were some remaining questions. We are still not clear exactly as to how it is the case that this budget for fuel and power has been underestimated by almost $1 million each year. For example, it says here that the Minister said that the department was aware that the new facility would cost more and that something like ventilation, it seems like the turnover had to be 13 times or whatever. This is not new science. I am sure there is an industry standard that they had to work with that would tell...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s all of my questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity for final supplementary. Mr. Speaker, the report suggests that the workforce at the plant, for whatever reasons and maybe for valid reasons, has been reduced from 10 to four, and there are no longer operators beyond 5:00 p.m. where it used to be monitored 24 hours a day. There seems to be a lot of morale problems. There always is when there are changes going on in a facility like that. There are people who have been working there for many decades. I would like to know if the Minister would speak to the corporation to make sure that all...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are the 17 new positions for this year? What has caused the need? Why is it coming up as not previously authorized? If they were old positions, why wasn’t office space for them considered in the previous budget? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, even if the plant is not in full use, it is situated practically in the middle of the city, next to a lake that people frequent for recreational uses and for other reasons. It is important that that facility be monitored and the safety is taken care of so that environmental disasters don’t happen that affect the people. Mr. Speaker, I understand that extra security would monitor it, but you still need operators on standby in case something happens. I don’t know if the security is enough. Mr. Speaker, there are varying numbers as to how much oil was...