Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are about the negotiated contract for the construction of the replacement of the two schools in Inuvik. There are land claims in place with respect to negotiated contracts in various regions in the Northwest Territories. In the Inuvik region those land claims extend to include the interests of the Gwich’in people. I would like to know if the Cabinet, when negotiating this contract, requested a legal opinion on any obligation they may have to the Gwich’in for a negotiated contract of this nature in Inuvik.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister of Finance has kindly offered to provide some additional information on this matter before us right now, so I have a motion, if it could be distributed.

Thank you. Does the Minister know if the Inuvialuit beneficial shareholders benefit directly from any IRC business interests?

Thank you very much. I would appreciate that. Again, just to process: when I asked about Ministers providing letters of support for negotiated contracts in their communities — and Ministers getting involved in discussions about capital projects in their communities at all, I suppose, negotiated or otherwise — it was kind of alluded to that I should know, having been in Cabinet, that there is a process. Something that’s a bit curious to me is that if a Minister provides a letter of support to Cabinet for a negotiated contract for a project in their community, does that Minister then leave the...

Now, supposing that this particular appropriation under ECE gets approval in this House, then the next step will be to draw up and finalize a contract with the party to whom the letter of intent was sent.

I was trying to get at whether there was a significant amount of time between when the letter of intent was sent and when we were talking about this in the House. Then I was going to suggest that perhaps it could have just waited rather than get us into this quasi, possibly legally binding, agreement. But I see there’ve been several months in between: August, September, October — three months...

Is there an actual record of decision from the Financial Management Board, signed off by the Minister of Finance, I would suppose, or someone acting for the Minister of Finance which would grant that appropriation authority up to that limit Mr. Aumond is speaking about?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I had inquired previously, working in this building it’s hard not to notice the deteriorating condition, really, of the circle drive here and the walkways. I know there’s been a lot of money invested in those areas over the years, but it seems like they are forever sinking away. I was just wondering if it’s not to the point where some kind of almost emergency or immediate action is required to prevent the asphalt from getting worse. I’m curious about any future planned allocations in the Capital Budget for addressing the driveways and parking areas for the Legislative...

I realize we’ve had an unfortunate circumstance here, but I do want to say, too, that I have constituents who have received medical services through Capital Health Authority and thought that if they moved to Edmonton, they would get better service. They found out it was better to move back to the Northwest Territories, where they were given a priority status when receiving services at the U of A.

For the Minister’s information, the London, Ontario, and Edmonton, Alberta, university hospitals are the top two rated in Canada. I guess I’m just a little bit concerned that maybe with the rich...

Thank you. For the benefit of those people in Hay River who are maybe following and are interested, what did the visit of the Minister and designating the Diamond Jenness renovation as a red flag project mean? And from where we thought it was going to show up in the capital plans, where is it now? Why the difference in the timing?

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for that. I really do look forward to getting it and actually visually inspecting those reports myself, because, you know, rumours do abound. I have heard that the reports had come back indicating even in a very small quantity, parts per million in the air — I’m not sure how it is measured — that there was asbestos in there. So I look very much forward to seeing those — not that I don’t believe the Minister, but I would like to see it with my own eyes.

Back to the issue, though, of the quality of the environment in which the students are educated in Hay River...