Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sorry; can I just confirm that we’re on forest management? Is that correct?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance from whom I received the written reply to my written question of May 19th regarding the cost to this government of supporting the Mackenzie Gas Project.

In my question, I asked the cost by year during the 16th Assembly for costs such as (b) travel and receptions by Ministers, MLAs and other officials, (c) staff positions and contractor services, and (d) communications, planning promotional events, publicity and advertising.

The tabled response I received, however, is inadequate and almost evasive. It does not supply the costs...

Thank you for those remarks. I understand that and I guess I would just ask the Minister to consider a little research in this area and provide that research results to our businesses, our tourism operators, so they are operating with full information there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do support Bill 9. I came to that support through the process that’s been outlined and the participation of many. I want to express appreciation to those who did contribute in the process and the considerable input we had, especially from small businesses and entrepreneurs, many of whom are currently very much struggling now in the face of our low caribou populations.

I just want to point out or comment or observe that our local resident businesses have, on the whole, been extremely responsible and have not been, sort of, the source of the angst that has generated this...

Well, we’ve had discussions in this House where it was identified that the Green Procurement Policy might rightfully belong in the Department of Finance so that it would be applied and implemented. Whereas it’s not now, it would be applied and implemented across the government. I am interested in what it would take to configure this module to be able to handle it. I recognize that there must be other policies that this software is responding to and if we should move that policy into Finance, I hope that the potential for this to be useable to administer that policy would be part of this...

Are we anticipating any further expenditures other than just about a million dollars in this case?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wonder if I could just have a little explanation of this fund, the $925,000. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a question on the North Slave regional warehouse upgrade that’s scheduled for 2011-2012. I see in the substantiation that there was some consideration to replacing the building, but it was deemed advisable to remediate it rather than replace it. The remediation costs were somewhat over a million dollars. The budget for the work being done is considerably less than that. I don’t see any planning to deal with the rest. I’m just wondering what the department’s plans are. I think we try now in our infrastructure plans to do things on a comprehensive basis and...

Mr. Speaker, I very much appreciate that response from the Minister. I had very good reasons, of course, for asking this detail. For example, the tabled response gives a sole identifiable cost of a particular trip to Calgary as $1,455. However, I have learned that this one trip listed as $1,455 actually cost several times this for travel plus additional costs for hospitality, media and consultant services. So $21,000, in fact, is a far cry from the $1,455 listed. I am not saying that it is not in the total response from the Minister, but it is very difficult to determine. Again, will the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Reports indicate increasingly severe effects of climate change on northern regions. The latest U.S. reports describe conditions such as increasing permafrost temperatures around the globe, the lowest snow accumulations in the North since 1966, warming summers with longer spring melt seasons, and increasing rates of loss of sea ice.

Record low water levels reveal an example of local effects. How many props did you go through this year out on the big lake? It’s estimated that permafrost melt at past rates will cost us greater than $400 million over 20 years repairing...