Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, committee. Page 14, Transportation continued, capital investment expenditures, road licensing and safety, not previously authorized, $881,000.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all I would like to thank those Members for their words of support for this motion. I would like to talk a bit about a couple of things.

Cost has been mentioned in a number of different contexts. Yukon spends $600,000 or $700,000 a year for their ombudsman office. I would suggest that we are hardly anywhere near the size of Quebec, so I can’t see us spending $13 million on an ombudsman office. I expect we would spend approximately the same amount of money as the Yukon. I also expect we would see some savings in our court system and justice system as a result...

Mr. Hawkins, it is on this page. Carry on.

Thank you, committee. Page 8, Finance, capital investment expenditures, office of the controller general, not previously authorized, $661,000.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Members, before we go on, I would like to recognize a visitor in the gallery, Mr. Sonny Greenland, who is here visiting from Inuvik. Welcome to the House.

Members, we are on page 13, Transportation, capital investment expenditures, highways, not previously authorized, $62.342 million. Mr. Hawkins, do you have anything new to contribute to this discussion?

WHEREAS nine Canadian provinces and the Yukon Territory have parliamentary ombudsman offices;

AND WHEREAS the Northwest Territories does not have an independent ombudsman office with a broad and comprehensive mandate to investigate complaints about the practices and services of public agencies and to promote fair, reasonable, appropriate, and equitable administrative practices and services for Northwest Territories residents;

AND WHEREAS an independent ombudsman office could provide an alternative to the courts to address both individual disputes and systemic issues;

AND WHEREAS an independent...

Thank you, committee. Page 13, Transportation, capital investment expenditures, not previously authorized, airports, $8.880 million.

Thank you, committee. Page 6, Education, Culture and Employment, operations expenditures, education and culture, not previously authorized, $147,000. Total department, not previously authorized, $147,000.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Neudorf.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for that. I appreciate that. I firmly agree with the Minister that we should be making sure that public funds are used properly. But in the Minister’s statement there is a statement he made that I really don’t quite understand. I would ask him to clarify. The Minister stated, “We will be asking communities to provide quarterly reports to ensure the framework continues to meet their needs.” Does this mean that communities are required to do quarterly reports on their spending or does it mean something else? Thank you.