Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, March 22, 2004, I will move that Bill 4, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 3, 2003-2004, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we don’t have that information readily available. We will get it together as we are going through the exercise now of looking at how we deliver HR resources throughout the departments and the communities. So we are beginning that process and we will pull that together and provide it to Members, but we don’t have that department by department at this time right at this setting. I would encourage the Member to ask each department for their HR people in there, but we can and we will pull some of that together and provide it to Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member has it right. The reduction in the cost of assets and service is a result of the transfer to the Housing Corporation, and that corresponding amount will appear in the Housing Corporation section. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That would appear in the reform fund portion, and it would be a portion of the Canada social transfer. So it's accounted for in this section of revenues.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We feel that the other areas are secured. We continue to monitor the operations, ensuring that our guarantees…We're hoping that they are not going to be exercised. There have been strong provisions put in place to protect our position. Most guarantees provided that working capital draws must be margined against inventory and accounts receivable. So we've done a fair bit of work. Parent companies and owners must cross-guarantee the GNWT. It is a complicated process and we've had complaints on the other side that it's a very cumbersome, complicated process, but...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a correction on the initial response I made. The seven departments we are working with, we have pooled the employee benefits administration sections together, just for correction for the record. The specific area of the employees and the reduction and the number of employees within the department, we have 130 positions and when we take into account the increase as a result of the UNW increases, this is the third year of the three years that the increase has gone up. That is where you see the growth in that area of expenditures, it is because of the increase of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the initial amount of 2002-2003 actuals of $936,000 is the amount we book for superannuation for, I believe, the Power Corporation and Workers' Compensation Board. The changing amount in the main estimates is the estimated amount of what would be required of us in the same area. The 2003-2004 revised estimates is a change in the grant-in-kind for staff housing; a one-time grant to staff housing. Again, that’s because we no longer have that program. I know Mr. Voytilla here was getting antsy because of the fear that program might come back to life. We do...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, they are reflected in these numbers.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Trying to pinpoint what it would cost ongoing, besides the fact that we're putting more money into the existing system now, we know there's a direct cost there. Delaying the decision to replace the FIS system is difficult to nail down, because as technology changes, maybe we can come up with a better system that may be a little less or it could get more expensive. It's difficult to measure that portion. What we can measure are the direct costs that we keep adding in trying to prop up the system we have now.

Recognizing that, it is a critical situation and at some...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will keep it short. I agree with what the Member is saying. We need to continue to find ways and work together in the Northwest Territories. I think that is the northern leaders' aspect of how we can work together and put our arguments forward to Ottawa and can benefit all of the residents of the Northwest Territories. It is not about us and them, it is about we, how we can together work and go forward and put that business case in Ottawa about the revenue situation.

Again, as I stated, as a government we will have to look at our own power we have now to do things...