Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Speaker, the Premier is not telling the entire story, and he is misleading the House.

Interjection.

Well, Mr. Speaker, I'd be interested in knowing who approved the loan guarantees, because let’s be very clear: I was never part of a decision to approve a loan guarantee.

Under the Financial Administration Act, when a loan guarantee is put in place or is increased, there is an obligation to notify Members, but I don't ever recall voting on the increase to the loan guarantee. So somebody must have been acting on our behalf in the interests of the government and in the public interest to have approved those. I'd like to know who that was. Thank you.

I was previously directing my questions to the Premier on the Deh Cho Bridge. Maybe I should be directing them to the Minister of Transportation.

My questions are with respect to the $9 million loan guarantee we put in place. Were we privy to what the $9 million to date was actually spent on? Did we have a role to play in approving what that initial $9 million to date was spent on?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I just want to be clear. Is there something yet for our government to sign off with respect to these schedules, which are the appendices to the concession agreement? Do we still have requirements to officially sign something off? If that is the case, who would be signing those off on behalf of our government?

Mr. Chairman, I would like to move that we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to describe for Members what is being proposed here in this motion to delete: Public Works and Services is records storage; Justice is the perimeter fencing at North Slave Correctional Facility; the $80,000 in Education is for the renovations to the Lahm Ridge Tower. Those are the three items this motion proposes to delete from the interim capital appropriations.

Mr. Chairman, the committee today would like to consider Bill 3 and then continue with Bill 1, in that order. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, so these contracts are normally sole-sourced contracts, and we do spend a fair amount of money. I haven’t even gone into the ones where we hire people who actually reside in the Northwest Territories or who have their shingles hung out in the Northwest Territories.

In view of some of the need for cutbacks, does the Premier see any opportunity for savings on this particular type of discretionary spending?

Mr. Speaker, as many people will know, the Regular Members of the Legislative Assembly have been meeting lately to talk about ideas for strategic reductions, since the government has advised us that we need to find $135 million over the next two years. It’s been a very interesting discussion, and at some point our report and recommendations will be made public.

For those who don’t know, there’s a very interesting document available in our library. It’s called “Contracts Over $5,000.” It’s a public description of all contracts over $5,000. To anybody who wants some interesting reading material...

Mr. Chairman, I move that sub-clause 3(2) of Bill 1 be amended by striking out $491,566,000 and substituting $490,831,000.