Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a clarification question. There are two things happening here. There was the ESA which was done originally, which was intended to identify the items in the building so that we could actually get a proper price and that people who were bidding on contracts for the teardown could be informed. Is the Member talking about that contract or is he talking about the contract that was awarded based on the information which… The first one, okay. To Mr. Guy, please.

Thanks, and I’ll go to the deputy for some more specifics, but at the end of the day we require our contractors to have a bond in place for their subcontractors and our contract is with the primary. The project that we’re getting is from the primary, and our dealings and our negotiations are with the primary. Their contracts are separate, independent legal documents between them and another party and it would be inappropriate for us to interfere with a separate legal contract between two other parties. We want to make sure that everybody is protected in the process. We make sure that the bonds...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The department administers contracts on a huge scale from small standing offer agreements, sole-sourced contracts for small amounts of money like $25,000, $30,000; $5,000 and up. We also do major builds such as the East Three School and the new office building in Yellowknife. We have change orders on a regular basis on any number of these types of things, these types of contracts.

In particular I can talk a little bit about the teardown for the school in Inuvik. We have a contract which is well within budget. There are going to be some change orders on that building. We...

We plan to have this policy done long before the building is open. Interestingly enough, it is a great idea. I will stick to great.

In talking to some of the arts communities, different ideas were brought forward. One of the ideas that was brought forward was, rather than having dedicated space for a hanging or painting, it may be better to bring in screens that have rotating art on them so that we can see carvings, paintings, many different art forms on a rotational basis. That means we’ll get a greater degree of artists being presented on a regular basis. We can do things like this in...

I will get back to the Member on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I still think it’s a good idea, and to that end we’ve actually formed a working committee or working group that consists of Education, Culture and Employment; Industry, Tourism and Investment; Transportation; as well as Public Works and Services. We’ve had a number of meetings. We had some meetings prior to Christmas, where we actually had some input from art organizations in the Northwest Territories. The most recent meeting, trying to put together a plan – and Public Works and Services is taking the lead on the development of a program or policy – was just last week...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An interdepartmental committee consisting of members of the departments of Health and Social Services, Education, Culture and Employment, MACA, Justice and the Executive are working on this initiative. The committee expects to complete its assessment of the feasibility of a specialized court by March 31, 2013, at which point I’ll will be coming to committee to share the findings as well as the options that exist, and looking for committee’s support on moving on one of those options.

The judiciary has expressed a significant interest in a specialized court but had some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to recognize a friend and constituent, Amanda Dei. Amanda passed away last week after battling ovarian cancer for well over a year. She was a loving mother, daughter and friend. Amanda will be greatly missed by her daughter, Madilynn; her sister, Kim Lambrecht; brothers Robert Langlands, Trevor Lambrecht and Joel Dei; nephew, Alex Lambrecht; and father, Norman Dei, who is with us in the gallery today.

In addition to her loving family, Amanda had a huge circle of friends, often referred to as the No-Pants Army in recognition of Amanda’s distaste for pants...

Mr. Speaker, the Member’s timeline is a little bit different than the timeline I’m working on. I remember that a motion was passed in the 16th Assembly. Nothing happened. A motion was passed in the 17th Assembly, which is only about 18 months old, so we’ve been working on this for 18 months. We have a lot of good information. We have taken a lot of information to committee. We are working with committee.

Once again, the Member continues to refer to a mental health court. We’re not sure that that’s the option that’s going to be supported by committee, but we will be having those discussions.

At...

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, there are many options. Wellness court, mental wellness court or mental health court is one; wellness courts are others. We don’t know which type of court we are going to be moving forward with. We’re going to be bringing forth those recommendations to discuss with committee. Mental health court is just one example.

With respect to working together, the Minister of Health and I have had many conversations on this, and we have both directed our staff to be involved and to work on these exact initiatives. As I have indicated, there is an interdepartmental committee...