Glen Abernethy

March 31st is basically the end of the three months, so we will have a better sense within a month. With respect to are we planning to take on any additional health or education boards, I will go to Ms. Gault.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to confirm that the Government of the Northwest Territories’ new Reservist Leave Policy allows public service employees to take unpaid time off to serve with the Canada Reserve Force, part of the Canadian Forces.

The Canadian Reserve Force is made up of volunteers who serve with the Canadian military while maintaining civilian jobs or studies. Reservists have made substantial contributions to Canada’s domestic and international operations and the number of reservists in service has grown significantly across the country. The number of NWT reservists has increased...

I mean, I completely understand my colleague’s point about spreading the benefits and trying to be a leader. To some degree, I mean, we wait for where we know we can get supplied before we go in, because we’re not a supplier of pellets but we want to support the industry. We will go in where there is limited use of pellets, but at least some supply, and us being there, having additional demand, demonstrates that this technology works here in the Northwest Territories and that others can certainly build upon it. Example: We are putting biomass in some of the schools and some of the other places...

I get the Member’s point. I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree. I think there are some fundamental differences. With respect to the utilities, the way it’s working now, we’ve got the budget. We’re able to track. We’re able to provide reports, and we provide quality maintenance to buildings and monitoring of this particular situation.

With respect to the $12.211 million, the Member did ask some questions on this last year that were well pointed, and he indicated the title that is now recoveries used to be revenue. There was some confusion about that, and the Member suggested some...

Thank you. That’s assuming that there are complaints. This isn’t just about complaints, this is about learning best practices and getting the information that will help us improve processes. I would encourage any subcontractor that’s got any issue with a particular file to talk to the contract authority for that file. Each file is administered by different people in Public Works and Services. So I would encourage them to identify the appropriate contract authority and have a conversation with them.

No, we manage and operate the buildings and cover the costs.

We believe that it is going to work out, but we are in a pilot for three months. That will give us a better sense of the actual costs, but we believe what they are spending and what we charge is going to balance out. [Microphone turned off.]

People building buildings, offices, houses and whatnot would still have to meet National Building Codes when they’re building their buildings. We as a government have made a choice to meet and exceed, and we’re exceeding by about 10 percent as the deputy minister indicated.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For some specifics on that I will go to the deputy. With respect to the Technology Service Centre, we are providing a service to departments whereas with utilities we have management responsibility of the asset. There are some slight differences in the two.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me today are Paul Guy, who is the deputy minister of Public Works and Services, and Laurie Gault, who is the director of the Technology Service Centre.