Tom Beaulieu

Mr. Speaker, the department was seeing the cost of advertising escalating every year. Since we’ve gone to this system in October, we are able to stabilize the cost and we are within that cost and we’re not increasing the budget to add on some of the jobs. This is something that was discussed between our department and the papers.

Right now a lot of what we’re doing with advertising, we’re doing a lot of generic advertising. All the departments are cost-sharing, so we’re getting economies of scale on that. So that’s one of the ways that we’re bringing the costs down in that area in order to pay...

As I indicated to the Member, I am sure that if the northern union wanted to put this on the table the next time around, it would be something that government would certainly discuss. At this time there’s a pre-determined agreement on the methodology that we’ve applied. We’ve applied the methodology to 22 of the 34 communities that are under this agreement and have increased. So we must recognize that this was a give and take and that there are some increases and some decreases. I also recognize that the cost is high, but this is something again that was pre-determined, agreed to the...

I should have been clearer in my response. I apologize for that. What I was indicating was that it is a negotiated item, so it was agreed to. The methodology was agreed to and it’s been left up to the Government of the Northwest Territories to do the annual adjustments. The northern living allowance was not an item that was on the negotiating table. The last time we negotiated an agreement with the Union of Northern Workers, they felt that they were more interested in the salary portion of it, the increase in the salaries, and they were satisfied with how the northern living allowance was...

Mr. Speaker, if that is internationally to lower the cost across the board, then our government is prepared to look at that particular tax for fuel into small communities that we’re delivering ourselves. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, petroleum products operate through a revolving fund. There’s a Revolving Fund Act, which means that the fund itself is self-funding. So the only way that we’re able to deliver fuel to these communities is by charging what it costs to deliver fuel to the communities.

If we were to subsidize one community, which we are allowed to do up to 95 percent of the cost, we would have to take it from another community. We’re allowed to charge up to 105 percent of the cost of delivering fuel to a community.

We try to keep it fairly balanced and do it at the true cost, 100 percent of the cost...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I feel I have to speak on the bill again. I have spent a lot of time talking about Bill 18, a bill that is going to do nothing more than consolidate a portion of the Weledeh riding to the Tu Nedhe riding, combine the two ridings together. I don’t know if the small community riding is now joined in with the Yellowknife riding or if they’re taking the traditional riding of Yellowknife out and joining it with a small community riding outside of Yellowknife.

I would like to read a bit of what the elders parliamentarian Ms. Violet Beaulieu has presented during the Elders...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you know, Rocher River is still part of my riding of Tu Nedhe, so I’d like to recognize my auntie Vivian Kelly, who originated from Rocher River, and also her daughter, my cousin, Linda Wood. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am currently looking into a specific request from the Inuvik group, with the idea of coming up with a solution that is satisfactory to this group and also the firefighters, as they are captured within the same section. So this is what we’re doing.

It sounds to me, just on the value of what we’re talking about right here, that it is important individuals playing an important role and that the Government of the Northwest Territories should do all they can to try to support both of these groups. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The special leave provision is part of the negotiations between the union and the Government of the Northwest Territories. If the leave, as laid out in the Human Resource Manual for firefighters and the CASARA people is a special leave, as the Member indicated, they would be following what is negotiated within the policy within the special leave requirements. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately I don’t have all of the cost breakdowns of all the types of advertising that we’re doing. Our initial intent was to do a couple of things. One was to contain the cost of advertising and also not spend a lot of money on advertising that was not being used. Like I indicated, only 3 percent of the ads that were in the paper were the reasons that individuals were applying. So this is what we’ve managed to do. We’ve managed to maintain the cost. We’re not increasing the cost of advertising across the board, but we are making some special provisions to make sure that we’re...