Sandy Lee

To say in all the three bullets here, studying the cost of living issues, it suggests that somehow this bridge will increase the cost of living, and this is why I had to do the whole song and dance about the fact that in fact the case is completely reverse, the case is completely reverse. This bridge will reduce the cost of living for the North and for Yellowknife and the surrounding area. We have to do everything we can, it will benefit everybody, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have to do something to avoid a situation that we had earlier in the month when we are at risk of running out of...

Geez, Mr. Speaker, what I want to tell you is this project has had more review, and more input, and more study, and more effort than any other project we know. It has gone through a lengthy process. Oh yes, and there is a benefit to Fort Providence area and I understand the Member from Sahtu said talking to his family they don’t know what this project is…

Mr. Speaker, I have indicated many a time, not having access because of the ice break-up in the springtime and in the fall, it could amount anywhere between six to eight weeks in a year and I know and I appreciate that in many communities that’s the state of being all year round. I appreciate that and I believe they should get the bridge too. That’s not to say that Yellowknife should not get that. We have 20,000 people and the businesses and all the services we provide that get closed down twice a year and there is a cost to that, Mr. Speaker. The trucking companies pay extra money when...

Did the government look at the added benefit of keeping such a northern business here as a cost of rendering the contract? If there was some amount of money set aside, why didn’t they enter into a negotiated contract to keep the infrastructure in place instead of bringing up all…

…thank you.

Well, I guess it’s a case of he said/she said now, because he’s going by what the department is telling him and I am telling you, Mr. Speaker, from the perspective of Northstar, the government has to recognize that it costs more to run a business here. The counsellors for Northstar are paid more. They have their offices here. This other business could run a counselling service over the phone and keep all their administrative structure down south giving them an advantage. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, is he not concerned about the fact of Northstar not having this contract and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister can correct me if I am wrong, but I am assuming that the reason why there was a requirement for northern contractors was so that there is northern content in this contract. The fact is we have no way of knowing, other than this very clear case, that there were not any other names added to put weight behind this contract. How could the Minister assure us that there were no other names included in there to give weight to this northern contract in a not transparent way? It puts a doubt to the entire process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to ask questions to the Minister of Human Resources with regards to the tendering of the contract on the EAP program to a southern company. Mr. Speaker, in answering questions to the Member of Great Slave, the Minister just told that his staff has advised that the fact that the winning bid used the principal operator of the competing contract which now has been replaced by this new contract, the fact that that name was used as one of the subcontractors and that the new contractor has apologized for including that name into that proposal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to speak today about the ongoing contract negotiations between the YACCS board and the employees at Aven Manor. Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that we were not advised about the visits by the employees of YACCS and that they were here when the Members of this side had agreed to do a theme day on alcohol abuse, because I believe it deprived the chance for the employees to hear from all Yellowknife MLAs on this very important issue.

Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to let the employees know, and the clients of the Aven Manor know, that we...

Thank you. Thank you for that answer. My second question is to do with the input we received from witnesses about the pressure our judicial system is under. Just yesterday, under our supp, we approved additional funding for sheriff services and other court officer services. I think it's very likely that with the shortening of the process that we're amending here, that there might be additional pressure being put on judicial systems. I'd like to ask the Minister if he could make a commitment to work with the Minister of Justice to see whether we could somehow forecast the workload and look...