David Ramsay

Page 13, special warrants, total department, $3.394 million.

Mahsi, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, during our deliberations on this, I had a discussion about the $3 million for Pile Inspection and Repair Program. I didn’t get answers that I really was looking for. Obviously, what happened in Inuvik with the school and the pilings failing, that happened. What I see this as is a knee-jerk reaction by Public Works and Services to go out and do some of this work without really truly knowing what the cost is. I would suggest it’s much more. If you get into a situation like you had in Inuvik, it’s going to cost a tremendous amount of money to repair pilings...

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, again I just want to state for the record, it's not a good position to put Members of this House in, it's not a good position to put the residents of Fort Simpson in especially. Mr. Chairman, this is just another example of poor government planning and us having to make a decision based on poor planning, and, Mr. Chairman, I don't like to see that. It's absolutely poor planning on the government's part. You know, it just begs me to say somebody is ultimately responsible for this. Now I don't know which one of the Cabinet Ministers wants to take...

I will call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, there was a bit of an oversight on page 11. Can I draw your attention back to page 11 of Supplementary Appropriation, No. 1? We failed to mention special warrants. I am going to call special warrants, $182,000.

Mahsi, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is the second time and the last time. That’s right, I am closing it up.

Madam Chair, perhaps we could go to Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in my comments I guess I should have spread some of that irresponsibility factor over to the Minister of ECE in this, because I think somewhere along the line there has been some irresponsibility here and as a Member of this House I don't appreciate that too much, having to agree basically to flush $3.5 million down the toilet after two to four years. What have we got after two to four years after we spend the $3.5 million? We've got no guarantees at all. It's not a good expenditure of public funds.