Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 93(4) and have Committee Report 6-15(4) moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration on Monday, February 6th, 2006. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development is pleased to present its report on its 2006-2007 Pre-Budget Review Process. This report covers both the committee’s review of the 2006-2009 Draft Business Plans, which took place in September 2005, and also its review of the 2006-2007 Draft Main Estimates, which took place in January 2006.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it was about a year ago in this House that I was arguing very strenuously about the closure of the remand unit in Hay River. One of the premises of my argument, just one of them, was the fact that I didn’t feel that the $400,000 projected savings was actually going to materialize. Subsequent to that, I did ask the Minister of Justice, Minister Bell, if he would monitor the costs of providing the remand services under the new regime so that we could compare it to the historic costs for remand. Over the course of the year, he would do that. Does the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, does the Finance Minister concur that we cannot negotiate devolution and resource revenue sharing alone, as a stand-alone government, and tell me what is in our process right now that guarantees or confirms to us that the participation of aboriginal governments is there? When he goes to Ottawa, is he going to take somebody who represents the Aboriginal Summit, who speaks for the aboriginal governments as well as for this government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance today in follow-up to his budget address. Mr. Speaker, whenever we talk about the fiscal situation in our government, whenever we talk about resource revenue sharing, we talk about royalties and devolution. As a territorial government, this can never be done in the absence of talking about the aspirations and the cooperation of aboriginal governments in the Northwest Territories, as well. I know that the budget address was somewhat abbreviated today, but I noticed almost right away -- and I actually mentioned to my...

Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the end that we want to see progress on this file, can we do more? Is there something new or different? Is there anything new we can add to the process that will assure success on this area? Thank you.