Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the building as it exists now is the total size of 4,488 square metres. The GNWT portion of that is: the district education council section is 1,469 square metres; Education, Culture and Employment is 344 square metres; Aurora College is 429 square metres; Department of Justice is 105 square metres.

For the non-government users: the John Tetso Memorial Library is 233 square metres; Open Door Society is 365 square metres; Multi Media Centre Society is 27 square metres; and, cultural centre is 187 square metres. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, ultimately this House has the authority to direct us as it feels is the most appropriate action to take. Ultimately, as I said yesterday, there is no capital money in the budget to deal with Deh Cho Hall and that plan, even with this approval to do some renovations to keep it useable for the time being while we look at, as we’ve directed, the replacement of this facility, that plan would then have to go into the business plan process. The capital plan would then go before committee. If committee feels that renovation is the most appropriate means, then we...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to provide an update on the progress relating to the amalgamation of human resource services.

It has now been one year since we took the first steps towards a modern human resources management structure with the amalgamation of human resource services that resulted in, and continues to result in, identifying issues and areas where improvement is necessary.

One of the issues that was identified last summer was a significant backlog in both the pay and benefits areas. In both areas, plans were introduced in September 2005 to improve the situation. On the benefits side...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We haven’t done a review specifically if it’s negotiated contract process or a public tender. As I stated, one of the reasons this is larger than normal is because of the amount of money that was put into the capital plan increased significantly in prior years. Previously our capital plan was targeted at $50 million. We are now targeted at $75 million. So just the volume of capital projects approved has increased significantly as well as the dollars that came through the Northern Strategy trust fund. That is added to that, as well as the federal gas tax contributions...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I stated earlier, the indication I have, the fire marshal’s office became involved in 2002 and looked at a number of things and looked at the occupancy until 2006, as well as other timelines. So it’s been a number of years. Quite a number of options were looked at. Other options can be re-reviewed.

If we want to go back to the drawing board and try it again, the fact is there is no dollars identified for the Deh Cho Hall right now in the capital plan. Any work to do any improvements or to even look at portable units to put in the community interim, we need the funds...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, later on today I will be tabling the Public Service Annual Report that will give some information on how the work has evolved at this point, not specifically to the amalgamation process, that we are providing some more information on that side of it. Earlier the Member spoke of the employment equity policy. That is not in place yet. We’re still using the affirmative action policy in the work we do, but we are working on a paper to bring forward to Members of this House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The reason it has come forward this way is, yes, if we have approval of funds in this manner, there will be no other additional costs passed on to the consumer. If we cannot have approval of these funds, the department will have to look at its approved base of operations. If it can’t find it from there, it would have to come back with another fee structure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have used a number of numbers now, but for the record again, to meet the requirements for occupancy of the existing facility, if the choice was made to renovate, it would be $12 million for the existing facility. To go new for the existing facility, that’s a full amount and I am going to have to double check the square metres for occupancy now. I will have to confirm that with the number I gave earlier. It could possibly be out substantially. The fact is $12 million for a renovation of the existing facility based on 2004 numbers. It is a $20 million renovation…New...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have already had a number of discussions with my colleagues. More importantly, I have had a discussion within one of the departments that deals with client departments, that being the Department of Public Works, and reviewing why we’ve had such poor responses from some of our projects that we put out there for tender or RFP and having to look at how we can try to increase the competition level or deal with our capital program. One of the issues we have to look at is how our capital program is put together. For example, when a department comes forward for an estimate...