Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe the education system reform or review was mentioned on this page and I’m wondering, if there was a budget for that on this page, what is the amount?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to recognize Weledeh residents. First of all, Barb Hood. Thanks for all the great work she does. Also, Anthony W.J. Whitford. I’d also like to recognize former Premier Jim Antoine. Also, I would like to mention Loretta and Dick Abernethy, who are long-time but not quite current residents of Weledeh, and I believe they are both awesome as well.

I assume that would come before committee at some point as we get into this new area of activity. Just in terms of our work with Aurora College, our relationship with them and clarity and so on on roles, what is happening on that front and is there a budget identified in the directorate and administration for that? I’ll leave it at that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the Members bringing this motion forward. I am absolutely not happy with the distributors of gasoline, the retailers who are putting such a markup on our gas prices and consistently across distributors. It shows a real lack of competitive spirit. I think already we’ve seen a response from the Minister of MACA who has done some investigation on what our authority is in this area and, unfortunately, I think the window of opportunity for doing much about this is small from a GNWT standpoint. The Minister raised a number of valid points and certainly that’s...

I’m not really asking for transportation costs unless there’s an environmental management aspect to that. The rest of it, in terms of meeting the standards for fossil fuel storage and what cleanup costs we have, what is our cost to replace the proper storage equipment for fossil fuel storage and so on? I appreciate the Minister’s commitment there, I just don’t want him to do more work than I’m asking for necessarily. Liabilities, what are our current and anticipated environmental liabilities within this division?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to table the document here that is very timely and addresses some of the aspects of our exercise underway in developing a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy. This work is put forward by Senator Nick Sibbeston, who is in the House with us today. It’s entitled, Plugging into the Future, Executive Summary. It describes some of the real success stories that science and technology have or might soon provide to northern communities and includes a vision of where we might go from here. Thank you.

Thank you for that information. I would say Health is very keen, based on our discussions in Health. It is understandable. If we could standardize so many things across our authorities, it would clearly help out this government in many ways. I hope that is possible.

My next question was: What is the schedule for bringing them on side? I guess we’re not at that point yet. I guess I would encourage the Minister to give that support. I am sure he can see the opportunities for efficiencies that standardization brings. We clearly have the capacity or the capability to take that on. That’s all I had...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister has made a solid commitment there and I’ll look forward to working with him. We don’t have an internal auditor general, obviously, but a functional audit of a category of expenditures across government might be a wise move, especially given the potential savings involved. But the Minister has committed to come to committee to discuss the possibility of improving travel policy safeguards. So will the Minister hear from committee and include their perspectives on what should be included in that review? I appreciate the Minister’s commitments again...

Thanks. Just quickly for clarity, I assume the Minister is talking about Stanton, not Deh Cho and Sahtu which we have longer experience with. Is there anything to add on those? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister. I have no problem with that. The Duty Travel Policy of the FAA manual says that all travel is to be completed by the most economical and practical means available, but that only refers to ensuring best value once the decision to travel has been made. We have policy guidelines requiring senior management approval for travel to southern Canada with the advances in virtual travel through technology.

Will the Minister ask his officials to examine what controls could be put in place in the travel authorization process to ensure alternative communication means are...