Sandy Lee

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are also to the Minister of Finance and it is not in regard to an item before the Committee of the Whole, but in regard to the budget for 2004-05 which has passed. It is in regard to the money for TTC. Madam Speaker, it is only yesterday, I believe, I finally figured out that the money that this Assembly had voted on, as Mr. Braden had stated, $2.4 million was in fact not spent. It was last November that the government started looking at the possibility of moving this. My general question is how do we as MLAs have any confidence that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I should just state here that this might be an example where it makes sense that, for whatever reason, the government couldn’t spend the $933,000 that was allocated for the recovery program and they are asking us to re-approve this and there are good reasons for that, as opposed to the other thing that we are occupied with at this Assembly.

Mr. Chairman, I want to ask for more details about $550,000 allocated for materials and supplies. I wonder if the government is going to buy the equipment necessary for this program. What is that about?

Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to finish my statement.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I was not here I don’t believe when that happened with the young offenders’ centre and if there was an uproar then, and there should be an uproar now, two wrongs don’t make it right. It was wrong then, it’s wrong now and I don’t think that justifies the Minister’s move on this thing.

My point is we can’t do that. It’s not a proper expenditure in decision-making of government money. The Minister stated some of the reasons why the young offenders' centre had to be moved here. There are, so far, no reasons given whatsoever why it is better to use the Hay...

That is it for now on this issue. Thank you.

Yes, sorry, Mr. Chairman, I should clarify. I am embarrassed to admit this, but I think it finally clued in that we might not have a workshop in Yellowknife. Is that true? If that is the case, how would Yellowknife people put their input into this process? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t have the capacity to get into the mind of the Minister, so I can’t prove or disprove whether his recollection is correct or not. I am a member of committee and I do not recall that. I can only go by what I have in my mind. Even the documents we received from the Minister in our in baskets, the briefing note about the potential assessment on the move was dated November 24, 2004. That would have been after our business planning process. That probably would have been when Dene K’onia was being suggested for closure. I don’t know what happened before November as...

Mr. Chairman, the general public out there have already heard about this and they are inquiring of us about details. How are the people who might want to take part in this able to find out this information? It is not an unlimited amount of money. It is a good chunk of money, but not money that could be spread thin and wide and forever. Could the Minister indicate as to what he can tell the NGOs or parties and people who might be interested in taking part in this and what they should be doing to get involved in that? Thank you.

We vote in this House, giving the authority to Ministers to spend the money as they requested. There was money approved to renovate this building and if the department chooses not to do that, that's a change in the scope of the work.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My apologies for repeating what seemed like the same question and perhaps lacking originality, but sometimes there is a need for that in this House and you have demonstrated that very well in the last session when we were talking about issues that were pertaining to other matters.

I’d like to ask the Minister, with all due respect, the Minister is not the expert on programming and neither is anybody around this table. I’d like to know, and I’d like to be assured, and I think I have the right to know on behalf of those children who are going to be affected that those...