Bob Bromley

Yep, 18th Assembly. No more questions.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. If we’re looking at a 20 percent increase every year, would the government exercise that clause without going to competition?

I appreciate that information. So this is a 20 percent leap in this contract. That seems like a pretty steep increase in a year. Have the value of diamonds gone up by 20 percent? Again, I’m assuming that this was not an RFP, but was this contract a competitive thing, and if not, will we be contemplating that in future years?

Mr. Chair, that would be useful. Thank you. I’m sure Social Programs has that information, but that would be useful.

Are we expecting additional requests in subsequent years, I guess, or will those be funded out of the internal budget? Do we know at this point in time?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I enjoy the consistency across the years.

So, $20 million, $20.037 million, we have had some discussion on this, I think, but I just want to note that this sort of expenditure and this specific one is totally consistent with the impacts of climate change. It’s a consequence of the extreme weather events that are happening globally with increasing frequency and severity. The NWT doesn’t have any special dispensation, so these sorts of things we can expect again with increasing frequency and severity and we need to be able to plan for them.

Scientists have warned about this...

I appreciate the Premier’s explanation of their thinking as far as they got.

Regular Members of this House, of course, were caught by surprise by the announcement of this Cabinet largesse, learning about it the way most citizens of the NWT did: through the media.

Were any members of responsible committees meaningfully consulted or consulted at all on this latest $20 million subsidy Cabinet has come up with?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize a couple of hardworking constituency assistants, both of whom are residents of Weledeh. Of course my CA, Bob Wilson, a long-time businessman and involved in many aspects of the community with the city and so on. Also, Amanda Mallon, another Weledeh resident involved in many aspects of our community in the NWT. A big welcome to David Wasylciw as well. Mahsi.

I appreciate the Minister’s perspective there and I know he has the same perspective as me in the long run. What it also means is we’re giving up the opportunity for services to people and for doing a better job at dealing with the cost of living, et cetera. We have a record for continually going back to big daddy to raise our borrowing limit and so on, and we don’t seem to pay much attention to those. We try to have a $100 million buffer, and that’s starting to disintegrate because of these sorts of decisions and unexpected costs.

The alert, I think, is unexpected costs are becoming an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Residents of the North are clearly burdened with astronomical costs: power, heat, food, and gas for cars, ATVs and snowmobiles, transportation to other communities. Nearly everything costs significantly more here than elsewhere in Canada and the world. For many this burden is manageable. They make a good wage, often two in the same family. However, this is not the case for everyone, and a significant number of Northerners struggle to make ends meet, often losing the battle. Our social service and income support statistics bear this out.

Government has gotten into the...

So that difference between the $329,000 and $657,000 was essentially accounted for by the additional commitments to making the building accessible to those with disabilities as I understand it. That’s all I had then.