Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand this came about as a result of new accounting procedures required by whoever sets those things. I don’t know whether it’s the Auditor General or what. I am happy to see this. I think our government is too. They realize these liabilities are real and are out there, and it’s nice to have some assessments on which to base what the costs are going to be in the future and today.

I understand that there are two components to this. One is assessing existing sites in a little more depth, rather than just knowing they exist and they do have some degree of liability. We...

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate the commitment. The more flexible suite of job models would give people who would like to pursue local economic initiatives, for example seasonal land-based activities, more family time and opportunities for volunteer service in our communities and the freedom to do so. I can attest that, based on the number of people who are coming to me with this, that’s come up in our recent Local Economies Forum, people have a strong interest in this. Building stronger and more welcoming and nurturing communities, and retaining current residents and attracting newcomers...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement today with questions for the Minister of Human Resources. I would like to ask questions about new and innovative solutions for the recruitment and retention of employees for our civil service.

Is the Minister aware of the common interest in reduced work time and job sharing amongst many employees, such as interest in three-quarter time or two-thirds time, half-time, flex-time? Thank you.

Job sharing, seasonal jobs and reduced-time jobs are important factors in the quality of life. Providing people with job opportunities geared to today’s northern lifestyle would yield happier and more productive workers with healthier families and communities. It may well yield improved attention and attraction of new northern families.

I urge this government to pursue this opportunity soon, and I will have questions for the Minister. Mahsi.

I appreciate the Minister’s response. I wonder if committee could be provided with an inventory of the art and the space in the building, the wall space or whatever, floor space, dedicated to the display of art in the facility according to the new policy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t really have specific questions, so I will keep my comments to general remarks here. I really would just like to acknowledge that the great majority, probably 95 percent is carry-over from largely infrastructure projects, and it is indeed a great amount, $67 million. But on the other hand, it’s down in percentages in what our carry-over has been for the last several years. It’s been up to 30 to 35 percent and this year it’s down to 20 percent, and I’d like to acknowledge that we did a good job in the previous year at completing our infrastructure projects, or at...

I understand that these are sort of two separate questions in a way. I guess, in terms of registering our liability for our public accounts, which I believe is a part of this exercise, how would those be handled where securities have been assessed but not collected or secured for operating sites? How would that be accounted for?

Thanks for that response. So, did we do any fieldwork on this? Was there an attempt to build in the area of contamination, the degree of contamination, the depth of contamination, that sort of thing, in toward building these estimates? Thank you.

Obviously, 894 people for our population is very shameful. We have to do a better job. When people who lack safe, warm, secure housing see unoccupied Housing Corporation dwellings with no tenants in them being heated through consecutive winters, they are understandably frustrated and feel that this is a horrible waste and an unjust use of scarce public resources.

So, what changes in policy are being contemplated? I thought we’d done this already. This is going on for years. What policies are being contemplated or will we finally act to make sure that in the face of the desperate needs we see...

Thanks to the Minister. I heard 894 people. I believe they would be families. People.

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