Wendy Bisaro

General comments are concluded. We will go to detail. We will bypass pages 1 and 2 and go to page 3. Members, we are on page 3, Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2011-2012, Legislative Assembly, operations expenditures, Office of the Clerk, not previously authorized, $128,000.

Total department, not previously authorized, $85,000.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Christmas approached a few months ago, I began to see ads in the newspaper advising Northerners about upcoming GNWT office closures, and I was struck by the contradiction in an ad from Education, Culture and Employment which gave notice of a two-week closure of all offices right beside a slogan proclaiming ECE helps you go places. Hopefully, ECE does that, but certainly not for the two weeks at the end of December and the beginning of January each year.

The motto of the strategic plan for the Department of Human Resources is: public service, public focus. I fail to...

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To general comments. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks to Mr. Aumond for that explanation. I guess, I asked whether or not this has been to our benefit or whether it’s to our detriment. Maybe I can get a comment on that. I forget what my other question was so I guess it wasn’t all that important.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Yes, we do. Minister of Finance, do you have witnesses that you would like to bring into the Chamber?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of questions with regard to clarifying some of the intent of this particular motion or bill. I understand that it is for short-term debt, short-term borrowing, but I would like to know from the Minister, I have some concerns and I’m sure from the previous questions that the Minister has heard from Members that there will probably be some lack of understanding on the part of our residents with regard to this particular bill.

We talk a great deal about our borrowing limit and our debt, the government’s debt, and the fact that we’re close to our borrowing...

Alright, Members, I call Committee of the Whole back to order. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have another question with regard to Health and Social Services. I share the same concerns that have been raised already with regard to Health and Social Services. Again under Health and Social Services there are some contracts which are paid out 100 percent at the beginning of the year that are fully funded in this interim appropriation and then there are other ones that are paid out a quarter at a time. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could elaborate on which contracts under Health and Social Services are ones that need to be funded 100 percent up front.