Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to recognize a few people in the gallery. We have Mr. Jeske and we have Mrs. Braden up in the gallery. I’d like to recognize them. My new constituency assistant, Coady Summerfield, will be in the gallery as well. I’d also like to take time to recognize the Year of the Rooster as Ms. Lee did, I’m saving it for this time. My wife is of Chinese background and I’d like to wish everyone Happy New Year in Cantonese, which would be…(English not provided)…which basically means Happy New Year everyone. Lastly, although he’s not in the gallery, he’s sitting next to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in the House today to speak about an important issue of internal audits and to assure that our system is accountable, ethical and efficient in a public service. The unit responsible for internal audits for the GNWT is the Audit Bureau. It is my understanding, Mr. Speaker, that a significant number of important positions in the Audit Bureau are currently vacant. This has been the situation for quite some time. This is a real problem, Mr. Speaker, and something should be done about this concern because it affects all NWT residents.

Mr. Speaker, this issue...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could this government engage the Arctic Energy Alliance in getting something like a five-point plan on simple steps we can do, because we need to personalize this problem? We need to pitch in.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise again with questions to the Minister responsible for FMBS with regard to my Member’s statement today as well as my Member’s statement yesterday that was made with regards to my concerns of the consumption of fuels and power with the Northwest Territories government. Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear today in the context of reasonability, what is this government doing to monitor fuel and power consumption of our government assets; that would be buildings, cars, etcetera? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise again because I still have concerns about the rising oil prices. Mr. Speaker, I spoke yesterday to the Minister of FMBS about these concerns. Unfortunately, I felt that my answers were lacking any true lustre. Mr. Speaker, I am concerned again and I will have questions about the monitoring and consumption of fuel and power. I don’t believe that I got solid answers on how we are doing this. So, Mr. Speaker, attention needs to be looked at this issue. It’s a serious issue. We need direction. I’m not suggesting that we need to spend oodles of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to speak briefly in regard to the motion. I will honestly say that I believe the motion will help start a process where we will fix the FAA; that’s the Financial Administration Act. I believe that our present government, although a minority government and also known as a consensus government, does act and govern like a majority government, although the numbers are quite the opposite, maybe Ottawa can take lessons from how our government as a minority government governs as if it is a majority government.

Mr. Speaker, this motion will say that they need to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a year ago during the election campaign, I heard loudly and clearly in the city of Yellowknife, not just my riding of Yellowknife Centre, but in the city of Yellowknife as a whole, about the need for a treatment centre. The people were screaming for it, Mr. Speaker. People were asking for it. MLAs have been asking about it for a long time. So this motion, I think, speaks to the intent of what folks have been asking for.

What better job than to serve our people of the Northwest Territories? Well, our people are asking us to serve them by doing their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If all three Ministers are going to be dealing with this, maybe I will send my next question to the Premier. Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if we just continue to direct it to the Minister of Finance or what. I look for direction, but I will direct it to the Minister of Finance and allow you to redirect it as appropriate. Mr. Speaker, we need to tighten our belts. That doesn’t cost money. Mr. Speaker, it has been mentioned that we use the Arctic Energy Alliance and we have been. We fund them through our programs. We can do this. I am not talking about expensive...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I won’t go to the length of yesterday’s transcripts, but I will refer to pages 2380, 2381, 2382, and 2383. I will just paraphrase to put it all together. The Minister spoke about departments consulting with RWED, the Department of Housing. He talked about on an annual basis. Some of these problems we can’t build into a budget exercise, anticipated costs, operational things are being done. We realize that there are going to be some impacts, but to mitigate them, we have to work forward at the time with real bills. Mr. Speaker, I am basically talking...

We need a directive that looks at this problem. This is a simple solution. We need to personalize this solution as a commitment to the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause