Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to go on the faith that our Premier has committed to us as a Legislative Assembly on quarterly reporting. I don’t feel comfortable doing all reporting, because I think what we are going to do is create a bureaucracy alone on this travel. When we are talking about making government work a little smoother, a little simpler, I would rather start with his comments, and then we can put that on the check. If we just said international travel, I would be comfortable with that, but all southern travel and international travel is a little too much for me right...

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr. Minister. Just to readdress the issue, because I was reading during Mr. Menicoche's questions. Could he reconfirm on how many positions are outstanding to be returned to Fort Simpson, and if it's more than one is it a progressive transfer reinstating those positions in that community? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister, for your answer, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, if the Minister could further explain what we get for $100,000 as a term negotiator as in time, how long they work with the department, and what we get for a $50,000 research contract. I'm just trying to clear this up as in why. Is $100,000 slated to pay a negotiator for a year, and is $50,000 kind of slated around a program to pay a researcher for a year? I'm just curious in us finding new avenues to have excluded negotiated contracts, when either they should be employed within the service or you should...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, if the Minister could elaborate a little further, I notice that the travel budget is--if I heard him correctly--he said $555,000. He also said we had a $213,000 travel budget for what I understood as the ministry’s office, maybe specifically to the ministry. If he could elaborate on both of those. What’s the number of employees that travel? That’s a lot of travel. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am referring to page 2-70 under grants and contributions, Aboriginal Affairs. The line item I'm referring to is regional reorganization and capacity building. For the 2004-2005 main estimates we have a line item of $200,000, where I noted in 2003-04 in the revised main estimates there was zero, and it notes under actual under 2002-03 $40,000. So I am looking for the reason why basically one year, why did they take the year off, or what happened, or where did they go, or was this cost under some other line items that needs to be explained? Thank you...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the committee recommends that the committee continue to review Bill 1 with the conclusion of the Department of Public works and Services, Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and the Executive offices. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Did the Minister imply that these were negotiated contracts?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the committee met with the Minister on February 17, 2004 to review the draft 2004-2005 main estimates for the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs. The ministry is proposing a $48,000 decrease in operations and expenses from the 2003-2004 main estimate. The committee is concerned about the slow implementation of land claims agreements and hopes to see considerable progress during the term of the 15th Assembly. Despite the considerable number of years since the signing of the agreement with the Inuvialuit, Gwich’in and Sahtu people, there are still numerous issues...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee recommends the government continue to hold to its position that incremental self-government costs are the responsibility of the federal government. And further, that the government maintains a strong position with respect to self-government implementation costs in order to ensure the GNWT does not pay costs that are the responsibility of the federal government.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the recognition of the clock and allowing me to finish my questions. Mr. Speaker, under section five -- and I’m still concerned with the waiving of the BIP and understanding how it’s meeting our goals -- number one under general points out that the authority to make exemptions and approval revisions to the policy rests with the Executive Council. Now, I won’t argue with that, but how are we to translate when we waive and don’t waive and how is the Premier supposed to get that communicated out to the general public as we’re trying to meet our policy goals...