Bob Bromley

I appreciate that commitment. I think these aren’t issues that we should sit back on and let them come to us. I think the Minister is there. I look forward to his comments. These are obviously issues that we should move proactively on and take it to the people, anticipating that there will be increased interest, although we know there is interest already. I appreciate that commitment and I’ll look forward to finding out ways that I can help.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 62-16(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2010-2011, and would like to report progress. I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know a lot of our residents are concerned about rescue services on our highways and so on. My understanding is that there is an advisory committee that the department leads, co-leads with Health and Social Services and it includes representation from Transportation and Finance, community governments and so on. I’m wondering what the status of that committee’s work is. Apparently the goal is to produce legislative funding governments and policy framework for these services that are currently being delivered by community governments. So where are we at and are we putting...

It’s certainly an issue for agricultural land and I believe the lead might be ITI, which might be why you haven’t heard about it, but it speaks to the stovepipes that we’re continually dealing with. So I guess I just ask the Minister to look into that and see if there’s an opportunity to help out our public who are interested in accessing more agricultural land and I’ll leave it at that. Thank you.

Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that that concludes the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Committee, we are on page 6-21, activity summary, Municipal and Community Affairs, community operations, operations expenditure summary, $2.854 million. Agreed?

Contributions, $13.188 million.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to give a quick response to the Minister’s comments and a bit of reflection on where I’ll be coming from with my more specific questions.

I’d like to start with the 6 percent increase. That’s quite high. I see we had a target of 3.6 and that’s going to vary from department to department, but I see this as a substantial increase for this department. We are committed to 3 percent increase hereafter. This is a good opportunity to start being more responsible with our dollars. We’re losing flexibility as we approach our borrowing limit here. Again, I don’t see...