Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I guess a bit of history is our goal to try to make sure this gets done and get a legislative proposal back to Cabinet for April 2006. As laid out in the information we supplied, we hope to have this next review phase completed by 2005 for further review. Some of the things we are aware of and know that there’s significant work for impacts to people in the Northwest Territories around this area and the terms of reference as we’re going forward doesn’t necessarily just deal with the issue of finances or dollars and cents, in a sense, of what we do. But...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Liquor Commission is in one community right now and there’s no intention of breaking that further out, beyond what level of service is provided to date. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I guess just for the record as laid out in the budget address in the attached document and information to that, we’re looking at 2007-08 as going up to the $295 million total debt that we would have in place. It’s our goal as we follow through this process and as Members have endorsed their fiscal responsibility policy, to approach the federal Finance department and work with them on dismantling the debt wall and remove that arbitrary figure of $300 million and deal with our fiscal situation as a percentage of our revenues as lined out in that fiscal...

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is the Liquor Act that involves the Liquor Licensing Board and the process there. So, yes, that will look at it as we go through this process. As well, the review that’s happening will do a comparison to other jurisdictions, the practices in those other jurisdictions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, since changing over -- it’s only been two years since we’ve done this change -- we’ve already noted there are considerable changes. For example, if we had not made the change from our previous policy for 2003-04, we would have been paying approximately over $5 million for our insurance, and to date it would have been in the area…I’ll get Ms. Melhorn to get into the detail.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess the big thing we have to do and commit to is working with our partners, in a sense, the Department of Health and Social Services. Right now, they have the mandate for the health side of it, with the addiction side, addictions programming, and work with them and how we may enhance that communication going forward. We are prepared to sit down as a government to look at this and deal with that. There are a number of examples right now where Health and Social Services has been at the forefront when it comes to addictions awareness, the impacts of drinking while...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we are prepared to work with the other departments if they find that the non-government organizations -- or NGOs, as we call them -- are finding difficulties in those areas and their contributions are continuing to go up for coverage in those areas. We are willing to work with, for example, Health and Social Services, to see what areas we may be able to assist them with. But we haven’t, at this point, come up with a plan to change the way we do things. Our first goal is to ensure that we are able to insure both from a properties side and cover our...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Member is right; the role we play now from within the Department of Finance and the NWT Liquor Act is not as broad as some of the areas. We know, for example, as a government, the impact that liquor has on our communities and families is much broader than the act itself. As a government, we’re going to have to deal with and come up with a way of dealing with this as we’ve heard earlier about what programs are being run through Health and Social Services, like the anti-smoking campaign. Those are things as a government-wide issue we have to start...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as a government, we have looked at the requirements that we are going to need as we go forward in coming up with the funding levels that are required by departments to either continue with their level of services or try to enhance them, especially when we look at the economy that we have. A heated economy is one that is good, that helps with employment and business and so on. There is also the other side of it where there is an increased cost to provide services, whether it is just normal day-to-day services in the community or the negative side when...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the area of the Liquor Act, I guess is not an absolutely new issue. This is something that’s been looked at for awhile as being a concern to the government, as well as members in other organizations, because of the impact of alcohol and alcohol abuse in the Northwest Territories. Unfortunately, we have a lot of statistics that show that we’re one of the jurisdictions with the highest consumption rates. That impacts on our ability to deliver services and provide services to residents. It’s something that is of concern.

We’ve been looking at this initiative...