Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the work we’re undertaking now around human resource service centres and the work tied to that around preparing ourselves for bringing forward a paper for two Members, we feel that through that avenue, we could address how we would engage further activities or would we still feel that this is a satisfactory avenue to use. We would be addressing that through that process. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the fine-tuning is not all that fine when it does come down to the prices and the adjustments we would have to look at. We are hopeful, although we say closing balance for 2004-05 revised estimates, we are hoping with the last contracts and delivery of product, we might see that improve a little bit once the final accounting is done. If it continues to slide, then what I would be looking at doing is bringing a submission forward to my FMB colleagues for an adjustment to ensure we don’t start dipping below the line on a continuous basis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the affirmative action policy has been looked at by our government. Mr. Braden has brought his concerns forward and we have looked at them from within FMBS and reviewed that, and we are committed to going forward and hopefully bringing an equal employment equity paper to this Assembly that would see some changes with the way we deal with affirmative action categories. There are some problems with what we have in place now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, at one point the government-wide decision was to allow for privatization of facilities, specifically petroleum product facilities we had in communities. That happened in a number of communities. It was felt though as the larger communities were pulled off line that it was getting to the point where it would be uneconomical for both a business to try to operate in some of these communities as well as it became more cost prohibitive on our shop to look at further privatization initiatives, because the economies of scale would lose ground with each one. It...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when an employee is hired on a term position, again, their employment contract would state for how long that position is available. If it’s a two-year position or so on they would be available, that’s the timeline of that. The staff retention portion -- and I would have to double check this -- I don’t believe would apply because the job is slated to come to completion in that time frame. But I’d have to get the background on that. I’m not fully up to speed on that section. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess the Member won’t be satisfied if I told him once in a blue moon.

---Laughter

For the record, Mr. Chairman, I will have Mr. Aumond provide the detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for the scenario we entered into as Members of the 15th Assembly, with the fiscal forecast as it was, we laid out our fiscal strategy which included three years of reductions. The first budget we brought in had a $10 million capping of government expenditures plus own source revenues of $10 million.

This is our second piece of that. There is a $20 million reduction scenario that we are looking at and year three of the plan would bring another $20 million in reduction. With our fiscal picture changing as it is, we may not need to see any large-scale...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am aware of some of the erosion concerns from the communities the Member has raised, but the involvement that we would get into from the Public Works and Services side would be somewhat limited. Again if the project has been established, contracts would be let out in those areas of geotechnical work that needs to be done. In some cases we might be directly involved; in some cases it may be strictly within the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. I’d need to get more detail on the specifics of the project. Again, as well, if it directly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when an individual applies to the Government of the Northwest Territories under a casual position, they’re fully aware and made aware that in fact that position is short term and there are no other ties to the GNWT once that position is deemed no longer necessary. There are no additional benefits in the sense of pension and those things. When somebody is hired on as a casual, they’re aware that the casual basis is different than that of a term employee or a full-time employee. So that’s the information they operate with and some individuals do choose to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Once again, the price and how it is established takes into consideration the transportation, the contracts that are in place, and we're aiming at a cost-recovery basis. So there is little to no profit made. In fact, if we were going to try to just make every community pay for the price of delivering the product, some communities would see a significant increase to a litre of gas and a litre of home heating oil. But again, through the structure we've put together here and with our stabilization fund, we try to mitigate some of the increased costs of providing fuel...