Daryl Dolynny

Does the landlord receive an accounting of the money being spent in terms of, again, back to the proof of performance? Do we supply receipts as to contractor payments or of that nature? By which way does the contractor provide that information either through us, who is possibly doing our work for us, back to the landlord to make sure that we actually are following through to the T and I that we have in relationship to this agreement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In keeping with my continuing evaluation of the current administration, today I wish to talk about our growth in the GNWT workforce.

It is a known fact that managing the size of government is an important component of fiscal performance. Compensation and benefits for government’s departments, boards and agencies account for approximately 40 percent of the GNWT’s spending on operations. With the 2015-2016 average costs of compensation and benefits for a government employee at more than $100,000 per year, we should give this some attention today.

The GNWT workforce, which...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the answer. It was more the accounting aspect of the question. I guess the real question is: By what mechanism do we have to guarantee that those monies that we have are given to us, $2.5 million in total, will be spent at the YK Centre building itself and not be used for any other project or projects within our Public Works and Services? Again, by what way are we able to guarantee that this money is being spent where the money was given to?

Thank you, Madam Chair. When is the anticipated date of completion for these renovations pursuant to the $1.5 million we have before us today? Thank you.

Now the story is starting to be a little bit clearer. So we’ve got $1 million that’s destined to be spent next year, we’re trying to spend $1.5 million this year for tenant improvements. This is money that we’ve had in our public coffers since May of 2014. Is this money accruing any type of interest? Where is it parked exactly? Thank you.

So it’s safe to assume that that $1 million that was in last year’s main estimates were spent directly on the YK Centre tenant improvements? Thank you.

Thank you. I liked the Minister’s reply. I know they’re doing lots of work behind the scenes and I applaud their actions and I encourage them to continue.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to welcome the department here again today for the appropriations. Maybe if we can just start this off with a simple lead-in question here, if we can get some level of explanation what this $1.5 million means with respect to tenant improvements. Thank you.

Everything that we do here is to provide facts for the public to understand the money that we’re spending on their behalf, and as the Minister indicated, there was correspondence given to Members. I don’t believe that information, in terms of public utility letters, is in the public domain. But I know that Members on this side of the House received some correspondence just in the last week or so, which puts Members in a bit of a handicap situation because we weren’t made aware of the correspondence to and fro between the Public Utilities Board and the department. Can the department confirm if...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said earlier, Yellowknife has 40 percent of these establishments, not way more that we heard from the Minister.

Finally, it shows in the statement of operations that in 2014-2015 there were three compliance hearings in the NWT for a total compliance penalty collection of $2,800 from NWT businesses. For this measly $2,800, the Liquor Commission spent $25,000 in travel and amassed $34,000 in honouraria.

Again, can the Minister inform the House, does he still feel we’re getting good value for money? Thank you.