Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I better correct myself. Initially, it was August of 2002 that the relationship had changed. There were other funds provided through other sources within the government and the BCC was involved in this as well to the tune of approximately $100,000. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had an opportunity to travel back home on October 8th for the official opening of the Aurora Campus facility in Inuvik. I was joined by Commissioner Hansen; Ministers Dent and Krutko; the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council, Mr. Fred Carmichael; and a representative of the Inuvialuit, Mr. Eddie Dillon.

Mr. Speaker, in these types of events and facilities that are opened up, we must recognize the hard work and contribution of a lot of individuals. There are far too many to mention at this time, but for sure one of the key players in making sure this...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I guess first of all, we would hope we wouldn’t be to the point where my department was called into the picture, because that is when things have gone really bad and it’s collection time. Each department would be in charge of how they deal with the organization that received a contribution. In the initial stages, we want to keep that relationship going in a positive way.

The other part of it is from our side, the policy is quite clear on what needs to happen and the process we follow. I think that’s why we also hold our senior staff accountable for how...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the arrangement or the requests and working with the NWT Development Corporation began in March of 1999. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have, as a government, processes in place to deal with our employees that are required to do a certain job. They have to fulfill those requirements and have to be competent in doing that. So each department follows those guidelines and whether it be one supervisor dealing with an individual or if it’s right up to the deputy minister or the Minister, there is a process in place about how we would deal with our employees. It’s very clear and agreed to by the unions. So that process we follow.

In all of this stuff, let’s be real; there is the human...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When it comes to the role of FMBS here, we end up dealing with these as we are now, in the form of reporting it to the Legislative Assembly. The other role we would play is ensuring the departments follow the guidelines that are in place, and that’s something we’ll be more vigilant in is ensuring that the guidelines and policies are being followed. If we see there are specific deficiencies in what we’re doing now, we’d work to address those. As Mr. Dent stated, the way the money would flow in your first year of operations and looking for an accounting, they can give...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as stated earlier in the previous item that we’d looked into here, when organizations put their applications in I’m sure the proper paperwork was done and put in place. It comes back to the fact that the accounting portion of what was done with that money is the area we run into problems. The Member has raised one point that we’ll clarify; there was on both the Metis Heritage Association and the Metis Nation issues some crossover in the sense of directors. So there were some crossovers of individuals who served on both boards. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Member stated, again drawing a comparison between the taxes we collect as a government versus this act, the forgiveness of debts; write-off of debts. Sorry. Under the legislation that deals with our taxes, it’s very clear on what needs to happen and there is no program for forgiveness of taxes that can follow what we’re doing here. Although we would look at that as a government as to what initiatives; but when we look at the write-off of bad debts, the one thing that continues to happen, as I stated in my opening comments, is we continue to monitor...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to provide an update on the government's fiscal situation.

The budget I presented in this House in March laid out a fiscal plan that would allow us to achieve the goals of NWT residents while achieving fiscal sustainability. The budget did not make dramatic changes. We wanted an opportunity to consult with northerners before finalizing our plans for the term of the 15th Assembly. As Premier Handley noted in his sessional statement yesterday, this House has consulted with NWT residents to help us set an overall vision and goals for the government and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First let me say, for the record, I have not been keeping money from the employees myself. We have been working to try to correct the situation. Mr. Speaker, an example of what has to be done on a lot of occasions, especially on the Justice side, because there are so many shift changes, acting appointments and so on, that in one employee’s case, there could be 200 transactions that have to be looked at and adjustments made going back to the point of the change. One case could take 200 different transactions to come up with the final number that needs to be paid out....