Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, those are some fine contributions that we received from other jurisdictions and other governments, I guess. Although the Minister didn’t take the opportunity to respond to the assumption that the costs were in the $1.5 million range, could the Minister please commit to provide to this House if those extraordinary costs were due to the problems with efficiently running the North Slave Correctional Centre? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. On the list for general comments, I have Mr. Yakeleya, Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Villeneuve and Ms. Lee. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice today. Mr. Speaker, the Premier shared with us a process whereby money gets approved in our system and had indicated that you can’t just add money back into budgets or spend money at will. It needs to go through a process to be voted on and to be debated and consulted on and so on. I would like to ask Minister Dent a question today, because I find it curious that cost overruns in one area results in, what I think to be, cuts in another area. I would like to ask Mr. Dent what process he went through whereby...

Thank you. First on the list for general comments, I have Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well then I really have to question what this entire debate in Committee of the Whole with respect to department’s budget is all about if we have no opportunity as Members to affect any change in that budget. As Members all know, we’re already looking at expansion of government presence and government roles in various regions throughout the Northwest Territories for the upcoming fiscal year that are nowhere indicated in the budget. So I’m a bit disappointed with the Premier’s answer on that. All I’m asking for is that if the decisions were made on good and sound...

Welcome back, committee. I will call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are on the NWT Housing Corporation. I will ask Minister Krutko if he would like to bring in his officials. Is the committee agreed?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier. Yesterday in the House I asked the Premier about the numbers that were used to justify the reductions in the services in Justice in Hay River, and the Premier shared with me that the Audit Bureau of the Finance department would be looking at the methodology in these numbers. I have to say that I want to thank the Premier for that because, regardless of the outcome, I see it as some small step of progress on this subject which I’ve been harping about for some time now. I want to thank the Premier for that. I would like...

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Next I have Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Next on the list, I have Mr. Ramsay.

Okay, committee, I am going to call us back to order. The next item on our agenda is the discussion on the Northern Strategy. To start things off, I am going to ask the Premier if he will please provide some background and some opening remarks on the Northern Strategy. Mr. Premier.