Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can get that information for the Members. Again, the way it was budgeted for has changed since the actuals to the 2004-05 mains is what we built in for the year we’re in and we’re about the same as what we are planning for, expenditure wise, for this budget exercise here. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe this exercise we’re doing is about making sure that we’re doing the job right. That’s the first stage we were involved in, in a sense, is getting the mechanics right. Making sure that the organization, the design job descriptions are fitting and able to work well. Then as we go through that and develop that, the second phase of that would be the policy end, how things need to work together and get that end together. That’s definitely where we’re going to be needing the input of Members, to ensure that we’re on the right footing as we go forward.

I believe that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as the program is laid out now, anybody who has a household that is paying higher than the Yellowknife base rate, as we call it, would qualify for a subsidy. So elders, if they have their own home and their rate is higher than the Yellowknife rate would qualify for subsidy. If there are other problems around income and not being able to afford that, then we have some other programs within government that could be looked into. But specifically in this area as it would apply today, elders would be a part of the package when you look at the existing...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the difference the Member is speaking to is that in that year the budgeting was done to support the self-government process that we were involved with from the department, and it has changed since then. The demand for us to be at all the tables, and we found that the travel portion of it wasn’t required at that amount and it’s also accounted somewhat differently. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree with what the Member stated around the area of our technology and the enhancements and changes that have come as a result of that. At one time, when computers first came out, there was much discussion about how they would make our lives much easier. We haven’t found that to be the case. There are continuing changes and programs and platforms that we must adapt to and make necessary changes. As a government, we’re working and trying to stay updated on those things. For example, government-wide, we spend approximately $5 million a year in the area of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Power Subsidy Program has grown over the last number of years and we’ve had to change it accordingly or come in for higher costs. There have been a number of factors that were involved in that growth, the change in the way the billing was done or the rate riders and so on. I’ll have Mr. Voytilla go into that. Before that, though, the Power Subsidy Program is paid to residential customers as well as some of the small business ones, depending on their amount of profit and the size of it. But the vast majority is for residential customers and it is...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as the practice has unfolded over years, departments don’t have a budgeted amount for an increase until we know, in fact, that there is an agreement in place and what that might mean. In the first year of that agreement, we would have to come forward with a supplementary appropriation request to meet that first year's target levels. Beyond that, then it gets put into the business plan and again the business plan goes through the whole process to where we find ourselves today. Whatever agreement is settled upon, the first year of that we would have to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The PeopleSoft upgrade that we have gone to, 8.3, is as normal as routine would have it. Systems change and as time goes by there are newer versions of a product and this is part of an ongoing process. The PeopleSoft program itself is working okay. The problem we had recently was not to do with the program. It was to do with a technical hardware issue -- we had hardware crash on us -- which affected the storage of our data. However, that isn’t related to the PeopleSoft itself. The TSC and S&C work that’s happening is also separate from PeopleSoft and that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The negotiation process would be based on terms and conditions of employment, so the process would be on existing established positions. We don’t incorporate what might be down the road, so we are working with their existing arrangements around that scenario. Further discussions the Member has identified are things that, as a government, we would have to endorse, number one, and then follow through the process. That type of discussion doesn’t happen at the table. If we know this is coming into effect and that would become part of it. If there is already a plan and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, yes, the general accounting principles apply to the main estimates for the planning, and as we put this together it all fits within there. For more details, part of the process is, maybe it’s a selection process. The new community deal we talked about is within Municipal and Community Affairs and their direct relationship with communities and community infrastructure. That is where we are now making a significant change in the way that is worked, and we will support communities through MACA in making that changeover and going forward on that. With...