Floyd Roland

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we know that there is a lot of information out there. It is a matter of pooling it all together so that we can use it and how we would prepare or respond in future years as we look at what parts of the framework we would be able to fund. There is information out there that we can use. As highlighted earlier, there is a lot of information out there, but we need to pull it together as well as do some in-depth interviews with individuals as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, for the record I should also state that the package that was put together on responding to the Framework for Action II on family violence is, as we heard earlier, a question that should go through the business plan. It was initiated through that process. This piece has come through this avenue because of the lateness of our fiscal picture as a result of the federal budget. It will go back into the business plan for the next five years, but what is proposed here, for example, in this funding through the Executive, one is, yes, the development of baseline...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this was one of the areas, that category, all departments had put in for new initiatives during our original business planning process and with the fiscal information we had at the time, we directed all new initiatives be parked for the time being until we knew what our fiscal situation would be as a result of the federal budget, and this was one of the new initiatives within the Department of Executive. So they did try to initially come through the business plan process, but because of our fiscal situation we had parked all of the new initiatives until...

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my left, I have Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar who is the director of budget evaluation; to my right is Mr. Charles Tolley who is the manager of budget development. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Member is right; we had looked at the recommendations committee had made in a number of areas and went back to departments with a discussion what was requested. It was felt that there still needed to be some investment in this area for what was required, and we can go to Minister McLeod for the detail to substantiate that. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Joining me at the table here to my left is the director of budget management evaluation, Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, and to my right is the manager of budget development evaluation, Mr. Charles Tolley. Thank you.

Yes, Madam Chair. Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 1, 2007-2008 requests authority for additional appropriations of $58.169 million for operations expenditures and $78.898 million for capital investment expenditures in the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

The request for operations expenditures includes $14.037 million for investments in new initiatives for priorities identified during the 2007-2010 business planning process. Major items include:

$5.5 million to support initiatives identified in the GNWT energy plan and Greenhouse Gas Strategy. Of this amount, $2.4 million will be funded from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that Bill 8, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 1, 2007-2008, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we work with the Department of Human Resources on our recruitment and retention side closely. They have some dedicated staff that work with us. We do, internally, as well, within the department of working towards what we can do and that example I gave earlier about going to colleges, universities, along with our own recruitment practice we have with our own Nurse Graduate Program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t have the vacancies that we have across all the health authorities on me at this moment; I can get that information. What we have done, for example, in trying to address this, is we’ve worked with authorities on how we’re going to use agency nurses. There is a shortage yet; we still will use them from time to time, but what we’ve worked with authorities on is the fact that if agency nurses are going to be used, it is to ensure that our facilities stay open, not to do a top-up, as was happening in a number of stations. We continue to work around...