Debates of August 22, 2007 (day 15)

Mr. Speaker, I think I got the question. It was about the funding for the renovations. I believe those renovations have been completed. I can’t remember if in the business plan it also contemplates further monies for renovations. My tour, the last time I was in Ulukhaktok, of the facility, from a lay view it seemed to be a very good building. I know that there were some issues that we were seeking to address, but it’s not like it needed a massive overhaul. So I can’t tell you if there are further renovations contemplated, but I know that we did do some building envelope stuff to ensure that the buildings would make it through last winter. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker…(Translation)…earlier, my statement that I made, there’s a sports complex in Behchoko. They have a lot of activities happening in the sportsplex, but it has been closed for awhile for renovations and there were monies allotted to renovate it. (Translation ends)

…our government of Behchoko community and allocated funds from their capacity building fund towards the Behchoko sportsplex, the soon-to-be multi-purpose building, for a comprehensive retrofit and expansion. The redesign will turn the building into a multi-purpose hall including a library, youth centre, ice rink and gymnasium. The design work is currently underway and completion of what will amount to a new facility expected by 2009. The newly completed facility will add considerably to the quality of life in Behchoko.

Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister responsible for MACA, Municipal and Community Affairs. Since the one-time funding of the capacity building will only cover the redesign of the building, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister and his department of how they could assess and help with the project financially to see this important project complete so we can see more talented Tlicho athletes from the region? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Return To Question 175-15(6): Behchoko Sportsplex Renovations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we’d be glad to sit down with the community of Behchoko to review the options to do more work on this piece of infrastructure. However, I’d like to remind the Member that the community capacity fund was indicated to be one-time funding only and with no ongoing support. There is some other programs that we may be able to target or maybe allow for some of the shifting of their infrastructure funding or lever some federal funding. I would have to sit down with the community and see what’s available and what the plans are. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Supplementary To Question 175-15(6): Behchoko Sportsplex Renovations

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister is willing to sit down with our current Tlicho leadership. At the same time, I’d like to get some sort of a commitment from the Minister and his department to move forward with this initiative. I realize capacity building is a one-time fund, which really helped out a lot of our communities.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask my follow-up question to the Minister. Is the Minister of MACA open for partnership where the Tlicho Government, Behchoko Community Government, come out with some funds towards this important project. Could the Minister also commit towards this initiative via matching funds? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 175-15(6): Behchoko Sportsplex Renovations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as part of the New Deal, we transferred our capital dollars over to the community to decide and prioritize their projects. I’ve not seen the proposal for the Tlicho. However, as I indicated, I’d need to see what the business case is for this project and where the dollars were planned to be allocated from and what we can do for them. I’d gladly have our staff sit down and review that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Supplementary To Question 175-15(6): Behchoko Sportsplex Renovations

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are getting somewhere with this so it’s good, it’s a good sign. I guess we’re at the end of our term here. We’re here until next week, but the Minister is still in his capacity until the next couple months. So I would like to find out if the Minister could meet with the community chief, the Tlicho Government and myself to move forward with this possibly I’m hoping next week? If he could commit to that, to sit down about that initiative. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 175-15(6): Behchoko Sportsplex Renovations

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d gladly meet with the chief. In fact, I had a discussion with him this morning. I guess it would be providing that we can match our schedules over the next while and I’d be glad to work with the Member to try to set that up, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t think a session goes by where I don’t have some questions for the Minister who happens to be responsible for Human Resources. We’ve heard again, during this sitting of the House, some more concerns regarding human resources and the rollout of this new upgrade. The first question I think that really needs to be asked is, I want to know specifically why the contractor, Answerthink, who was responsible for the upgrade, had their contract terminated on the exact date that the upgrade went live and that was July 3rd. I think I need an explanation on why that happened and who made that decision. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Human Resources, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 176-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure that it would be appropriate or correct to say that the contract was terminated. We have a contract with Answerthink for them to deliver a product and, as I’ve said previously in this House, we’re not satisfied yet that the product has been delivered in the state which we were told it would be delivered. So at this point, we’re not convinced that the contract has been completed, Mr. Speaker. We are expecting a team from Answerthink to be here next week, six people apparently, to work at resolving issues. Mr. Speaker, we think it would have been more appropriate had they come back on July 4th. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 176-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I want to ask the Minister why the contract was terminated on July 3rd? Everybody that was involved in the rollout of this new upgrade said that the contractor had to be in place following the rollout of that program on July 3rd. They weren’t. Their contract was terminated; they left. They couldn’t have been there on July 4th and I want to know who made the decision to send them home on July 3rd, resulting in hundreds of people not getting their paycheques across this territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 176-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In our opinion, the contract is not terminated until the product has been delivered. So I’m not sure where the Member is getting his information that the contract was terminated, because we have a contract for a product to be delivered. Until it’s delivered in a working fashion, the contract is not complete. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 176-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister which invoices, if the contract hasn’t been completed, which invoices specifically is the government sending to Answerthink or Answerthink has sent to the government that they’re not going to pay? Which ones of those invoices is the government not going to pay and for what work that wasn’t supplied? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 176-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I had said in a response earlier in this House to Mrs. Groenewegen, that there are some outstanding invoices with Answerthink and I have provided direction to the department that they not be paid until we are satisfied that we have a working system. So I can’t tell you what specific invoices they are, but I do know that there is a substantial amount and we will wait and see what happens over the next few weeks in terms of getting the system up and running. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 176-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister, who specifically went against the advice of staff in that department to send Answerthink home on July 2nd before the system went live on July 3rd? Who was responsible for sending the contractor home and not having the ability to deal with the problems that resulted after the rollout on July 3rd when the system went live, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 176-15(6): GNWT Human Resources Information System

Again, Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure where the Member is getting his misinformation, but Answerthink was asked on two specific occasions just before the go live date, "Are you confident that this system will run? Has it run in tests? Will it actually perform as it’s expected to run or should we wait until September?" On two separate occasions the Answerthink officials said, "No problem, this is going to work, we’ve run it in tests, we know that it works perfectly, we will see that it will run without any problems." So, Mr. Speaker, the question was put to the company. The contractor said that they had a product that was going to work without any problems, that they had seen it work in tests and that it would work; but when it went live, clearly, it didn’t. So, Mr. Speaker, again, it comes back to Answerthink as having given the department the wrong information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of WCB and it’s in following up to the commitment he made last week in answer to my question that he would provide us with stats on the long outstanding cases from WCB, how much progress the WCB has made since the introduction of the policy in April. With a day remaining, I have not heard anything from the Minister and I’d like to check up on him, with him, before the time runs out. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Workers’ Compensation Board, Mr. Krutko.

Return To Question 177-15(6): Status Of Longstanding WCB Claims

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I did make that commitment in this House and I did state to the Member that I would get that information to her before the adjournment of this House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Ooh.

You’ll get it at supper tomorrow.

Supplementary To Question 177-15(6): Status Of Longstanding WCB Claims

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to think still that the words we put on the Hansard here are good and solid. Does that mean that I should expect that before the end of prorogation tomorrow? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Krutko.

Further Return To Question 177-15(6): Status Of Longstanding WCB Claims

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, one last time my questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I have outlined a new problem that has appeared in Hay River. It probably isn’t any problem in the sense that we do have muddy water in the spring almost every year as long as I can remember. However, the new problem is that we can no longer rely on the system we have in place to be adequate to meet the Canadian drinking water standards. This is going to require a solution. It is probably not going to be a cheap solution. We need to, first of all, explore what some of the options for a solution might be and then implement a solution. I would like to ask the Minister what funding may be available through his department to assist Hay River with this challenge. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Return To Question 178-15(6): Hay River Water Quality And Supply

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of different funding sources that we provide to the communities for assistance that they could use in the area of water facilities and infrastructure. That is the gas tax, the municipal rural infrastructure fund and the new capital dollars that we have provided. Mr. Speaker, we also have our staff work with communities to leverage any federal funding that might be available. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 178-15(6): Hay River Water Quality And Supply

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if a need as pressing as this one could qualify under the extraordinary funding that is available through his department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 178-15(6): Hay River Water Quality And Supply

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If it was demonstrated that the need was an emergency, we would certainly consider it. In this instance, there may be other options. There may be treatment options. The municipality has also indicated that they may have to look at settling ponds. So we would really have to be convinced that this is an emergency. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 178-15(6): Hay River Water Quality And Supply

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not spring right now, but in the spring when there is a boil water in place for almost a whole month, would that constitute an emergency for a population such as served by our water intake line? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 178-15(6): Hay River Water Quality And Supply