Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s all of my questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity for final supplementary. Mr. Speaker, the report suggests that the workforce at the plant, for whatever reasons and maybe for valid reasons, has been reduced from 10 to four, and there are no longer operators beyond 5:00 p.m. where it used to be monitored 24 hours a day. There seems to be a lot of morale problems. There always is when there are changes going on in a facility like that. There are people who have been working there for many decades. I would like to know if the Minister would speak to the corporation to make sure that all...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are the 17 new positions for this year? What has caused the need? Why is it coming up as not previously authorized? If they were old positions, why wasn’t office space for them considered in the previous budget? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, even if the plant is not in full use, it is situated practically in the middle of the city, next to a lake that people frequent for recreational uses and for other reasons. It is important that that facility be monitored and the safety is taken care of so that environmental disasters don’t happen that affect the people. Mr. Speaker, I understand that extra security would monitor it, but you still need operators on standby in case something happens. I don’t know if the security is enough. Mr. Speaker, there are varying numbers as to how much oil was...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand that this item is here because it’s been moved forward by two years because the experts are saying that unless something is done to fix this, there might be an environmental disaster happening. I don’t know to what extent. Could I get the Minister to tell me about the time frame? Is the work being done already? I would hate to see anything like that happen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to also take this opportunity to welcome the participants of the National Young Worker Safety Conference to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. There are many who are coming from south of 60 and from around the world, and for them I am sure this will be a great experience to see the North and meet the youth of the North.

Mr. Speaker, I could tell you a number of them are also coming from the North, and their participation at the conference has been made possible not only by the big sponsors mentioned earlier, but by many small businesses who...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Then can we have an indication as to whether this is just the start of a lot more operational money that we are going to be approving? This is just to take care of things that need to be taken care of this year or in the interim before the next budget comes, because we know later on in the supplementary appropriation we have requests for a big capital funding that is going to go to the airport. I just want to know if this $40,000 for the Yellowknife Airport is stage one of many stages that are going to come and how much the final tally will be. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I ask a question on the $40,000 for the Yellowknife air terminal building? My understanding is this has something to do with contaminated areas or some areas there that need to be cleaned, but in this here it just says it’s for new baggage screening equipment and increased passenger volumes. Could I just get some more detail on that? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The information we have says to us that this is to provide funding for the purchase of property in Wha Ti and Rae-Edzo pursuant to the employee house purchase plan. I am afraid I don’t understand what this money is going toward. Is the government buying the units for the employees? May I have more elaboration on this? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I move that we report progress.