David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask some questions today to the Premier in regard to the Deh Cho Bridge project again. I listened with interest to the comments he made previously with Mrs. Groenewegen. Yes, he is right: the last government could have looked at rescinding the Deh Cho Bridge Act. But I disagree with him on his take on the information being free flowing between the last government and Regular Members. If it was so free flowing, why would Regular Members have to pass not one but two motions calling on the government to disclose an updated cost-benefit analysis, and also to let us know what...

I’m just wondering, in this process we have, how we would arrive at a figure of $41.5 million for the renovations at ’École St. Joseph. Is that just a number we pull out of thin air, or who does the estimation for that? Do we work with the school board in trying to determine what that number is, what it should be, how you get there? To me, it’s like you might as well just reach into the sky and yank a number out and put it on paper, because this number is nowhere near what was proposed before, Mr. Chairman.

Again, I just want to ask: how do we arrive at these numbers?

This is another capital investment in my riding — it’s at North Slave Correctional Centre.

I guess I am, by default, the MLA for a lot of the inmates at that centre. I do receive a number of calls from inmates that are incarcerated there. One of the things they always talk to me about is the fact they don’t have enough in terms of programming on the rehabilitation side, and they could use more work in that area.

The majority of the inmates at North Slave Correctional Centre are of aboriginal descent. I believe we should be doing more to try to rehabilitate them, to give them the necessary tools...

Mr. Chairman, I have one other question. I know the facility was fraught with cost overruns, but if you are going to look at perimeter fencing of a facility, that should have been included upfront in the initial capital investment cost.

I’m wondering if it was taken out at some point because of the cost overruns, and the Department of Justice said, “Well, maybe we can do the fencing another day” and now they’re back, looking for the money for the fencing.

This is just a continual expenditure, so I’d like to ask that question.

Mr. Chair, this capital is in my riding. I agree with some of the previous speakers. The jail has been in operation now for a number of years, and I haven’t heard of anybody escaping from the young offenders unit or the North Slave Correctional Centre any time lately.

Maybe I could ask the Justice Minister: how many escapees have we had from the North Slave Correctional Centre? Or I could ask the Premier: how many escapees have we had from the North Slave Correctional Centre and the young offenders unit since they opened?

I’d like to thank the Minister of Finance, FMBS and the Premier for being here this afternoon to discuss the interim appropriation. I just have a few comments.

I don’t want to go over everything. I agree with much of what my colleagues have been saying, especially when it comes to energy efficiency and the capital planning process, which I certainly would endorse needs to be addressed. I also would strongly back up the opinion of my colleagues that Regular Members need to be included in the discussion on revamping the capital acquisition or infrastructure acquisition planning process here in...

Mr. Speaker, I’m having a little bit of trouble understanding the logic where the government tells departments that they’re going to be okay hiring on a case-by-case basis in an effort to achieve reductions. We don’t have to wait until April 1st to figure that out; that happened last week. That exercise is already happening. It’s at play in the government departments. The instruction was given by the government without consulting the Regular Members.

I’d like to again ask the Premier: what specific instructions have been given to the departments?

Mr. Speaker, I want to pick up where I left off with my questions to the Premier in regard to hiring. I just don’t want people out there in the public wasting their time applying to positions that we’re not deeming appropriate or where they’re not going to fit into our strategic initiatives, like I heard the Premier say earlier.

I’d like to ask the Premier: what positions currently are not deemed appropriate or fitting into our strategic initiatives, so that people aren’t applying for them?

They’re making that determination on what’s going to be necessary six months from now or required six months from now, in isolation, because we haven’t had that level of discussion on what’s going to be a requirement six months from now. Mr. Speaker, I do get calls from constituents who are trying to apply for positions with the G.N.W.T. I want to ask the Premier: when was the Premier going to let Members of the House know that the policy has changed in terms of hiring employees for the government of the Northwest Territories? When were they going to let us know that?

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier. It gets back to my Member’s statement, where I was talking about the reduction exercises currently underway and the information that’s flowing through to departments and not necessarily getting through to the Regular Members on this side of the House.

I’ve become aware of one department where they are doing hiring on a case-by-case basis. It’s not necessarily a hiring freeze but a case-by-case basis, and hiring has to be approved by the deputy minister. It’s a big change, Mr. Speaker.

I’d like to ask the Premier if that is a government-wide...