David Ramsay

Page 5-9, Finance, department summary, information item, revenue summary. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under devolution negotiations, I am just wondering if the federal government is coming forward with an equal amount as the Government of the Northwest Territories amount of $40,000. I am just wondering why we would not try to get more funding in that area in an effort to get more money out of the federal government to help with the devolution negotiations. I am not sure to what extent they would match our money, but if we could arrive at a deal with the aboriginal governments in the Territory on devolution and resource sharing, I think we should be looking at...

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Premier for that response, but I didn’t really get an answer that was satisfactory. Does the Minister of the various departments that’s giving out the contract, do they get involved in the decision to sole-source a contract to a former deputy minister? I think that’s a very straightforward question, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

The department starts on page 5-7, operations expenditure summary. If I could just ask if we could defer this until the end.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just wondering why travel has gone up so much under executive operations from what would appear to be $183,000 in 2008-2009 to over $400,000 in the 2010-2011 mains. Thank you.

Page 5-25, Finance, activity summary, office of the comptroller general, operations expenditure summary, $21.748 million.

Mr. Speaker, I was wondering, again getting back to… Again, this is about process, Mr. Speaker. The sole-source contract to BDK, I’m just wondering whether that cooling off period was respected and I want to ask the Premier, was there any discussion at the Cabinet table about the sole-source contract to this company. Was there any political involvement in the hiring through sole-source of this company?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Minister.

I will now rise and report progress. Does committee agree?