Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight conducted public reviews of Bill 2, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, on March 25 and 26, 2004. The committee would like to thank all the witnesses for their submissions which were made on very short notice. The committee would also like to thank the Minister and his staff for presenting the bill.

The committee was very concerned about the short amount of time allowed for the public to review and respond to this bill. Members appreciate that there were special circumstances in this case due to the recent...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wasn't quite sure if I heard the Minister correctly. Could I get him to repeat or state when he expects that PY to return to Fort Simpson? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Minister, can you explain to me why we need negotiators, why that fee would not be included under the compensation and benefits portion? If we need negotiators ongoing and we create agreements where we don’t go out to tender, we almost sound like we are hiring employees, but not hiring employees. Could the Minister explain the difference?

Mr. Chairman, is Mr. Handley trying to get us into detail already? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I see the Minister starts his presentation breaking out some of the expenses. Could the Minister break out other expenses he has pegged at $1.634 million? If he could start by breaking that out to give us a little better understanding.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If the Minister could just explain the anomaly under regional reorganization and capacity building. I notice in 2002-2003 we had $40,000 being spent in that section, yet during the 2003-04 year we had no contributions, then in 2004-05 we jumped to $200,000. If he could explain why, or was it funded under a different section, or why…Did nothing happen?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question to the Premier is emphasizing on his point that the BIP does not save us money. The Premier just said that. I think it’s well within the Premier’s ability to put the brakes on this and demand that the BIP apply. Recognizing that this whole side of the House wants this BIP reinstated on this potential bid contract tender, would the Premier be willing to make every effort within his means to ensure that this BIP will apply to this tender, recognizing that this whole side of the House is screaming for that type of action as well as the community? Thank...

My time is up, so I will release it for now in case someone wants the microphone.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If I could just follow up on the other expenses under phone bills. If the Minister could indicate if the territorial government is charged a flat rate for long-distance charges, do we have any specialized plans or anything like that? I realize it wasn’t just phone bills, but is the government engaged in a contract, therefore, we don’t pay, obviously, market rate for phone long-distance charges? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a motion to read.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate you pointing that out. I’m asking how is this statement being realized by waiving the BIP? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.