Robert Bouchard

My next question is more of a comment or a concern. My concern is: Has the department looked at the future demands of departments in the Yellowknife area? My concerns are that the space that we’re emptying right now may be swallowed up by the future demands of departments. As everybody is aware here, a few years ago we had division. There was probably a lot of empty office space. Now we’re full again. I’m just wondering if we’re going to have that same problem three to five years from now, that we’re going to be full again and going to have to build another building. Did the department look at...

So is Mr. Guy’s referral thinking that they’re in favour of it?

Just one other question. My other question was an issue from one of the students in my constituency, who indicated that the core of the review for residency is fairly lengthy. Would the department look to streamline that process as well?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I proudly rise to thank the community of Hay River for hosting the Honourable Governor General of Canada, Mr. David Johnston, and his wife. They were able to experience the great culture by visiting K’atlodeeche, and were able to visit with the leaders there and dance at the local community feast. They also had the opportunity to take a dogsled team ride with Mr. Danny Beck from Hay River.

The second day they were able to take a ride on the Great Slave Lake with a bombardier with one of our local fishers, Shawn Buckley, where they were able to pull a net and see...

That’s all for now, thank you very much.

I’m just wondering about this electronic medical recordkeeping system. Are there prepackaged systems out there or are we creating it from scratch? Will we be able to use northern contractors for this service?

A follow-up question on that program. So that is the program that’s already out there and we’re just piggybacking with the federal government, or is this something we’re creating on our own?

I guess in closing I don’t have any questions, but I do have concerns with this project. This government has indicated, and discussed it last Assembly as well, that decentralization was an issue and they’re still looking to increase – from what I can tell – more office space in Yellowknife area, which from what I understand doesn’t seem to discuss anything about decentralization and they’re not willing to discuss that at all. I have a problem with the fact that government is getting into where the private sector should be involved. Being a pure businessman, I guess, and now a politician, I...

So, for my clarification, we never looked into future departments’ needs in the upcoming years. These office spaces that we’re clearing out, potentially may be clearing out, may be filled in by other departments that are squeezed right now.

One of the other concerns that I have in the briefing I received is the government’s assessment that we need to keep a certain percentage ownership versus rental. They referred to a lot of southern numbers. I’d like to just ask the department if they actually considered the cost of doing business in the North, which would be quite a bit higher and that we’re probably pretty close to where we should be as far as the ratios. Those people who do lease from us do have a lot more costs in their operations. Did the department look into that?