Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, with our process that we have in place within government, our system is set up in two stages. The first one would be the Write-off of Debts Act that would come forward. That would stop the collection or the interest from continuing to grow. It clearly establishes a doubtful account. At that point, we still go after trying to collect the funds.

At this stage here, forgiveness of debts, we are actually forgiving the debt and no further collection process is undertaken from this point on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we're in the process of doing is trying to clear off our older files from the books. We realize that we're not going to be collecting on these ones and haven't been doing so for a while. Hopefully as we proceed down the path working with departments and now with regional directors put in place, that will be another avenue on providing information to regions and communities regarding some of the services. We'll also communicate with departments that are in the business of lending money or providing grants to individuals, that information be passed on to those...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as we find ourselves at this stage of coming forward with a bill of forgiveness of debts, many things have occurred before we get to this stage. These all originate within departments, and departments initially would work with individuals. For example, if there's a debt with student financial assistance, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and that section would work with students initially, trying to set a program up or a plan to recover that debt. Beyond that, then it goes to the next stage when the government then goes into a more...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m not aware of any changes to the premiums, but I will look into that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. WCB is directly involved with this process. They go through their own process of taking this into account. In fact, the majority of information provided to us is as a result of WCB’s work they provided to us because they recognize the act in place and follow that process through. So they have developed it. They have taken it into account and put it into their doubtful accounts, but because of our act, the way it’s written, have provided us with that information. In a sense, it’s a final clearance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in checking into this and having the department contact the administration for the public service health care plan, we've not come up with any satisfactory responses in that area. We have notified them that we are not happy with the changes that were made and would prefer to have it as it was, and at this time we've been informed they're not willing to go back to it. It references the drug identification numbers, I believe, as a way of how they work it through their programs and have payments put out and established, and it's on that basis what we're...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we can show on a number of fronts where we take very seriously the issues that employees face who work for us here in the Government of the Northwest Territories no matter what department. We have looked at this. We need to bring some consistency back. We have tried to be flexible where operational requirements are looked at, and feel that this is the avenue we need to work with for the time period and see how it works out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have tried to address some of the operational issues through this policy, and the one reason, for example at Stanton, is because the operating room does shut down each year and for lengthy periods of time. It was felt that this is an appropriate method of ensuring we had nurses to cover that year round when they would come back on. Again, for seasonal or for heavy work schedules in the winter or early spring, are paid out effective as of October 1st is another area. So we do try to put some flexibility in here. But the big matter here is, we have to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I presented my budget to this Assembly in February I spoke about a need to develop a broad macroeconomic policy for the NWT. Today I want to talk about how we will accomplish this.

We have all heard the statistics about the tremendous economic growth the NWT has experienced; 71 percent growth in gross domestic product since 1999, the highest employment rates in Canada and higher levels of income for workers. Much of this growth has come from investment in the construction of diamond mines and from exports of diamonds, with some growth associated with oil and gas...