Floyd Roland

I’ll get the information for the Member to follow the chart of how we work with Strategic Initiatives committees, how that feeds our existing system, how that works into our planning process, that builds the budget that Members will be taking the months to look at and pass, hopefully, as we get through this. But I will provide that type of information for the Member as we get into our budget process as well. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, much of the work that we do do feeds the system that we operate under and that’s a budget system. So, as the Member stated, she’s aware of the budget process and has that information. Ongoing work in the Strategic Initiatives committees, there’s some of the program review areas that are still needing to be completed and done. So as I stated, I will get that information to the Member.

As well, the Member, in her Member’s statement, talked about it seems like we’ve slowed down, there’s nobody in the offices to do the work. Well, simply, the fact is that not all work gets done behind...

Mr. Speaker, the process we engaged in was more inclusive for sharing information. We contacted committee at their request to have involvement from the Regular Members on our Strategic Initiative committees, and this Refocusing Government committee did have Members involved in that process. Then subsequent to that, we were informed that they did not want to continue that process. So we have gone back to the more traditional way of doing it. Once we have got enough information to present that will help us in our decision-making process as we go forward. We would share that with standing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the area of the program review office was established in late 2008-09, to, as the Member had stated, look at the way we expend our dollars and the efficiency and the effectiveness of our programs. The work that’s being done is in conjunction with the Refocusing Committee that is led by Minister Miltenberger. My understanding is he has worked on setting up a meeting with the standing committee in early February to go over the information that has been gathered in the area the Member mentioned in her Member’s statement, the area of the general office space...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Two weeks from today the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games will begin and Canada will be front and centre on the world stage. Shortly after that, Vancouver will play host to the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. More than 80 countries will be participating in these games and they will attract over 10,000 journalists and three billion television viewers from around the world. With so many visitors coming to Vancouver and so much attention focussed on Canada, the 2010 Olympic Winter Games represent an ideal opportunity to let the world know about the tremendous potential...

Thank you. The work that we do on an annual basis around business planning and budget development takes into consideration our revenue sources, the fluctuation in those revenue sources, whether it’s own source or transfers from the federal government. We’ve had a commitment by the Prime Minister and Minister Flaherty from the federal government that the transfer agreements that have been signed will be honoured. That does not mean that dollars outside of those transfer agreements that are funds that are identified to be sunsetted will be reinvested in and those are the areas that we’re all...

Thank you. The ongoing budget program initiatives of the Government of the Northwest Territories are something that we continue to do. The program review office has taken the initiative to look at those areas that we see the highest growth in as a Government of the Northwest Territories, it is reviewing that information. So the initial work had to be pooling the information together, then looking at it to see what those initiatives had accomplished and from there going forward. The initiatives underway, aside from the one that has been mentioned on the office review, is the work that is going...

Mr. Speaker, I am always prepared to update meetings we have had with federal Ministers on a whole number of issues that we have discussions on. As I said, this will be one of the areas. There is not much time to talk about it, but it is informing him of the steps we have taken. When we talk about what we have tried to do as the Government of the Northwest Territories through the Minister of ENR, his staff, it is to, again, put the conservation of the caribou first and foremost that we have caribou for the first generation. Let’s not lose sight of that. It is important we set up a process...

Mr. Speaker, we have these discussions as we go forward as the Government of the Northwest Territories in the 16th Legislative Assembly. We have shown, and I can show Members, the amount of times we have gone and met with aboriginal leadership across the Northwest Territories.

On the issue of caribou, we have agreements of co-management boards with the aboriginal leadership across the Territories that have settled areas that have co-management boards in place. The one place we don’t have is the area of the Akaitcho. That is an area where the Minister and the department have met with their...

Mr. Speaker, the program review office has not had an impact on this budget that the Finance Minister introduced yesterday. The work that the program review office is doing needs to go through the regular system. That is, once Refocusing Government committee has done their work, it will come to Cabinet. It will go to members of the standing committee. We will have some dialogue on that work and pick areas where we think we can get best results and do a finer focus so to say, Mr. Speaker. The one piece of work that has had an effect has been the general office space review and that work has...