Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Chair, I understand that we just intend to do general comments today, so I had not arranged to have any witnesses to be brought in. Thank you.

We are as transparent as possible. We, of course, are interested in being more transparent if that’s possible. We would be more than happy to have discussions with the Member and with committee about what improvements could be made.

I would also just like to touch on some additional information that I didn’t touch on before. There were also payroll audits done, payroll tax audit. Two major payroll tax collectors, and there were two done in Hay River, 23 additional payroll audits are planned, five in Yellowknife, 12 in Hay River, six in Inuvik. The current status is one of the major collectors...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize one of the members of the union contingent, as well, Ms. Lauraine Armstrong, a family friend and a berry picking and swimming companion of my wife. Thank you.

---Laughter

Thank you. All the communities could take a page from the work that Kakisa did to take matters into their own hands as the fire smarted their community, and as they were encroached on all sides by fire they recognized the value of that exercise. So I think communities can look at doing public spaces and then the encouragement for all individuals to get out there with their own saws and chainsaws, as I did my property, where you thin out the trees, you clear out the underbrush, you limb your trees as high as you can, move your woodpile away from your house and those type of things. All will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t quantify how widely it happens, but I do agree with the Member and I’ve seen it myself where there’s smoke coming through the snowbanks even on a drive from Fort Smith to Hay River where there’s been fires. So we know it happens and we’ve mapped the burned areas, but I can’t quantify it to the extent the Member is asking.

There are a couple of initiatives that are intertwined here. We are looking at increasing the population of the Northwest Territories. That is one thing we’re trying to do. We are working, as a government, on decentralization to move positions outside of the centre, out to the communities. That work is underway. Phase three is now underway. We are also working to fill the very many vacancies we have, and we have approximately a split between Yellowknife and communities of vacancies anywhere between five to 800 positions that we’re trying to fill in both inside Yellowknife and outside of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re not, in effect, losing jobs. What we’re trying to do is find people to fill the jobs that we have that are in many cases going begging. We have met as a government now numerous times.

We have a working committee that’s looking at a whole host of things, very simple things like the issue that has bedeviled many of us in many of the departments from following up with our students has been this issue that ECE had with confidentiality and an inability to share the information on students in school, where they are, what they’re studying, so that we can in fact make sure...

Yes, we are aware of the committee’s concern and of course, from a business perspective, we know that that number is too small. We have looked at sort of a 10-year rolling average and it would be about $10 million. So we’re going to look, based on our work and committee’s recommendations, we’re going to be looking at how we can have a base budget that’s more reflective of the reality. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That final calculation is still being compiled and we’ll have that in the coming weeks. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents, entitled “Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2015-2016;” Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Motion 14-7(5), Expansion of Policing and Nursing Services;” and “Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Motion 17-17(5), Interim Measures for the Commercial Harvest of Wild Mushrooms.”

Finally, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Justice, I wish to table the following document, entitled “Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 9-17(5), Report on the Review of the 2012-2013...