Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as Members, we get so much information that we are not always certain if we might have just missed something when something comes up. I believe the consensus in AOC is that this whole issue has not been brought to the committee yet. We are well aware that the government is moving ahead with centralizing human resources sections of the government, which is what most of the Members in this House wanted. Going by what people are saying on the street, it is moving forward. I am really thinking that any changes to the appeal process should be part and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If you look at the budget for 2003-04, the budget for the fuel was $320,000, but the actual expenditure was $620,000. That’s $300,000 more. It’s almost 100 percent more than what was budgeted. For power, the budget was $440,000, but the actual rate was $1.018 million. That’s $578,000 more. That’s more than 100 percent of what was originally budgeted. I think maintenance costs are maybe two-thirds of a PY more and one could see that as something that could happen, but for heating fuel and power, we are talking about 100 percent more than was originally thought. This...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as many Members are aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As it has for the last 13 years in Canada, and for the 11th year in Yellowknife, CIBC Run for the Cure was held on October 3rd of this year. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to also advise you that this year CIBC Run for the Cure was held in many of our northern sister communities including Inuvik, Iqaluit, Hay River, Rankin Inlet, Norman Wells, Fort Simpson, and Fort Smith. Once again, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report to you that Yellowknife has kept up with its reputation for breaking...

Thank you. I appreciate that because I know that the Members have talked about the rising incidents of violence and vandalism, and there are lots of schools in Yellowknife that are subject to all sorts of incidents of nuisance or violence or vandalism. There are lots of windows being kicked in, or where there are youth roaming around and stuff. I have had the occasion to talk to the school boards about the increasing costs and I know there is some concern about not only extra insurance premiums you have to pay for the extra cost of covering those damages, but also preventive measures they...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On this topic I would like to know more detail about what caused this increase in the premium first. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister just repeated what I said, which is that the department rewarded the party who did not meet the timeline by giving them a 15-year leasehold contract. Now, I have a problem with that. The second thing is, I resent greatly anybody across the floor saying that when we’re asking questions about the way they’re spending legal aid money that we somehow do not support expansion of the Legal Aid program and I do not appreciate that, Mr. Speaker. I want to tell the Minister and the Cabinet, they know that other NGOs, for example, the Centre for...

…and this decision has to be revisited and reversed, and I demand that this government does a better job.

Mr. Speaker, what kind of operation is the Minister running at DPW? Is the Minister telling us that the rules and regulations allow that the officials from his department can call up anybody and negotiate a sole-source contract for a 15-year lease with whatever business they want? I would like to know how I'd get into that kind of business, Mr. Speaker. How does a person at DPW decide which business he's going to give this 15-year contract to? If the criteria was only that it had to be...

Yes, Mr. Chairman, we do have a comment to offer from the committee on Bill 7.

Mr. Chairman, Bill 7 amends the Legal Profession Act to enable law firms to enable trust monies that lie unclaimed in lawyers’ trust accounts. This bill was developed…Sorry, I am reading the Minister’s statement.

---Laughter

I was supposed to read the pink sheet; sorry.

Mr. Chairman, the Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted its public review of Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Legal Profession Act, on October 12, 2004. The committee would like to thank the NWT Law Society for its presentation, and the Minister and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on a Point of Order. I don’t know exactly what section there, but I believe that we have a rule in the House that says a Member cannot suggest that another Member is providing any information that is misleading, and, Mr. Speaker, I just want to state that we have the right to ask the questions that we all feel strongly about, on the basis of the information we have.

I do not appreciate any suggestion by any Member in this House that somehow we are failing in our duty to give good information. So I respect the Member's right to pose his own question, but I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister still did not give any information about what criteria the staff has to meet in order to call somebody and say I’m looking for space in Yellowknife and I’m ready to do sole source. Because, Mr. Speaker, as the Minister indicated, of the three businesses that applied, none of them met the criteria. So it was a zero. Nobody met the criteria. So as far as I’m concerned, all the businesses in Yellowknife were entitled to have this negotiation with the Minister’s department. So why wasn’t the Panda Mall consulted? Why wasn’t the old Overlander’s space consulted...