Floyd Roland

Thank you, Madam Chair. The PeopleSoft program does have a long history with the Government of the Northwest Territories as we had to renew our past system of payroll and dealing with employees. PeopleSoft originally came into the government, as the Member stated, back in ’97 or ’98 and the government-of-the-day was looking to replace an older system. What we found in the day was the fact that as the program was brought in, the government did not take the program in the form it was delivered. In fact, I guess the proper terminology is it would be customized to fit the existing government...

Mr. Chairman, I am here to introduce Bill 10, Forgiveness of Debts Act, 2007-2008. This bill requests authority for the forgiveness of certain debts listed in the schedule of the act.

Pursuant to section 25 of the Financial Administration Act, the forgiveness of a debt or obligation to the government exceeding $1,000 must receive Legislative Assembly approval.

When a debt is forgiven, no further collection action shall be pursued.

The forgiveness of certain debts being proposed in this act will not require a new appropriation. Allowances for doubtful accounts were charged to an appropriation at...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that Bill 18, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2007-2008, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2007-2008 fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that Bill 18, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2007-2008, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, over the years, the estimating has become more accurate and the numbers have reduced, but it's very difficult to try to narrow it right down because if we have a large or a bad season of illnesses and diseases that we end up sending residents out to southern facilities, that can have a significant impact. If we are short on locums or different doctors that take care of our residents here in the Northwest Territories and we end up sending our residents south again to receive that type of service, that also has an impact on us. So it is difficult. We've...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fact is, as a government, we have made decisions on the political level to accept that we needed some change and we have put that into place. The business plan process that we have entered into is, one, prepping the information. We have made suggestions, but ultimately the 16th Assembly is going to have to either accept or change that and relook if it wants to relook at the philosophy of government and how it supplies its programs. That opportunity will exist, but as we prepare this Assembly and have done so far a preparation, we have looked at some...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, it is one of the factors now whenever we look at sites or equipment and the potential for environmental liabilities. We go through a process initially for environmental site assessment, and phase one is look at the initial area and the likelihood of site contamination and begin to work on that, identify it, whether it's soil, water, air, and what could be the impact of that contamination. Then we go to phase two of an environmental site assessment where we look at and do an undertaking to provide employment or information on the nature and the extent of that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think one of the things we have to do is there are recommendations. In viewing that report and what it's looked at and recommendations it comes out with, first we have to compare apples to apples. The NGOs in this territory, if we are going to do a comparison, should be compared to other NGOs in other jurisdictions and then look at an adjustment going forward for the cost of doing business in the Northwest Territories. If we are going to connect the dots, we should go a long way back to see how some of these organizations were established. Some of these...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to my right is the secretary to the FMB, Mr. Mark Cleveland; and to my left is Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, director of budget evaluation.