Bill Braden

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories is blessed with the highest increase in gross domestic product in Canada. Our per capita income is the envy of Canada. But, Mr. Speaker, the distribution of this wealth is so widespread that from the top to the bottom they are a universe apart.

Mr. Speaker, 15 percent of tax filers in the year 2002 reported incomes of under $25,000. Now government has a duty to respond and redistribute that wealth and help to put it into the hands and pockets of the people who need it most. Indeed we do, we have done so, Mr. Speaker. In the last...

So there is no fixed term and renewal contract on this. Is it sort of at pleasure then? How does that work? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the information and, yes, we have had a fairly good exchange about this as committee. From what I picked up on this, the department has recognized and taken action to make better utilization of our own facilities here at Stanton and see if we can do something, and I hope something quite significant, about reducing what the Minister said is potentially as many as 1,800 bed days that we did not need to send to Capital Health but, of course, ended up paying for. The Minister mentioned that this has been in effect for some months now. I’m wondering if Mr...

Madam Chair…

Thank you, Madam Chair. That is great. I have a much better idea of how that system works. To the $300,000 before us here, I wouldn’t expect the Minister to put out any names of individuals or corporations here before the House, but I am wondering whether…I think he mentioned there were potentially some corporate failures involved here. Could we have seen these coming and perhaps predicted that there may have been some default in taxes here? Was the department really caught by surprise by these particular corporations or have they been on the radar screen? Should we have predicted it?...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I won’t press this any further on this agenda tonight, Mr. Chairman. I have learned something that I certainly intend to carry into committee’s business. The GNWT should use every advantage that we can to get good value for the taxpayers’ dollar. We have every right to use the competitive marketplace to our advantage and the government, in many ways, is a major supplier and consumer of services. One, for instance, is in the rental market, Mr. Chairman. I believe the Yellowknife Housing Authority has something like 600 units under lease and yet I wonder to what...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I will not be supporting this motion either. I can appreciate that sometimes there is a benefit to giving ourselves some room and some time from when a motion or a bill is passed in the Assembly and when it actually takes effect. In fact, I think there are some that have been out there for years that have been passed by this Assembly, but have yet to take force. In this case, I don’t really know where the benefit would be for anybody to further delay the coming into force of the provisions of this bill, which, from my understanding, would come into force on assent....

That’s good news on the small community side where there is a one-shot resupply window.

The larger communities, I would anticipate, overall would account for a much larger chunk and here, Mr. Chairman, I am looking at the needs of our big infrastructures; schools, airports, water treatment facilities and things like that. Here is where again, are we knowing what our annual volumes are fairly accurate? Are we taking advantage of our volume, if you will, and using every possible leverage to buy ahead and get a good price and lock things in? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I would pose a question in a very objective way, I hope. That is to challenge the Minister to look within and to check our own attitudes and our own cultures and our own biases within ourselves as a Legislative Assembly, at the management levels and the senior policy-making levels of our departments. I believe that is probably where we need to start. I would leave one more question on the table as an illustration of that attitude, I guess, that we’re bringing to the table, too. That is, our consistent refusal, Mr. Speaker, to return the National Child Benefit to income support...

Okay. Thank you. That’s a very helpful explanation. Just finally on this matter, does the Minister anticipate that the money requested here, will this take us to the end of March, to the end of the fiscal year, or is the potential that we will have to find some more money to finish up this fiscal year?