Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize two members of Yellowknife Education District No. 1, if they are still up there behind me, Mr. Al Cook and Ms. Heather Clarke. There were here earlier. Welcome to the Assembly. I’d also like to recognize two Pages who are here today from Range Lake North School, but they live in the riding of Frame Lake, Brian Johnston and Elijah Lange.

Thanks to Mr. Aumond. So there is no revenue anywhere. Like, the funding that we got from the federal government for devolution, was any of that for these capital assets? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yellowknife has a great legacy of mining. The city is here because of mining, particularly gold mines. With the two mines in our city limits now closed, we’ve been gifted with one huge liability at the Giant Mine site, and after the mine’s abandonment by Royal Oak Mines, the federal government took over responsibility for cleanup and remediation of that site. Their proposed remediation plan didn’t really address the problem. Not surprising, when the planners were thousands of miles away and the threat not in their backyard. But it is in our backyard and today I want to...

Thanks to Mr. Aumond for the explanation. It’s very clear, but again, it confuses me. Why do we not transfer what we’re going to be spending? Why not transfer the other devolution money, the $3.7 million from our devolution money, in the year in which it’s going to be spent? Thank you.

One last question. The Minister mentions that it’s a design/build project. It’s a set price. I have great difficulty with these statements for many projects where it’s a set price. I have to ask, if it’s a set price, why are we having to eat the interest cost? Thank you.

I know the Minister said that they knew early on, but I think again this is a situation where Regular Members weren’t advised and if we were advised, it certainly wasn’t spelled out to us that this was going to be coming at us later down the line. The department may have known, the Minister may have known, but I don’t think Regular Members were advised and told this contract is in flux, we’re going to be coming back at you probably at some point in time to ask for a change in how we’re cash-flowing the money. I certainly don’t remember that we got that kind of a firm explanation of the need to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make the same comment on this page that I made yesterday in talking about the operations expenditures. These projects have been completed and yet we are only now being asked to appropriate the funds. I won’t say more than that, but we have violated, I guess, for lack of a better word, a policy that we have as a government, that we don’t spend money until it has gone through an appropriation in this House, and all three of these projects are completed at this point and yet the money is only just now being approved. Just a comment.

Thanks. Just one last comment. I appreciate that the Minister says that the situation is understood, that it’s been dealt with, but it again goes to my feeling that it really doesn’t matter what we think because stuff is going to happen and we’ll hear about it after the fact. So I guess I do have a question.

I would like to ask the Finance Minister what he will do in the future to ensure that these sorts of things don’t happen again, or will he change the policies so they can’t. If this is the way we want to go, then let’s change the policy, but let’s not flout the policy and do the work that...

That is an excellent description of what an ombudsman can do, and I invite Members in this House and members of the public to provide their input on the need for an ombudsman. There will be a public town hall meeting this coming Monday, November 3rd, in the Great Hall here in the Legislative Assembly, 7:00 p.m. I invite all members of the public and these Members to come and provide their views and hear what the ombudsman from Ontario has to say. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister of Education for that information. So, these projects have been completed, yet we have not yet approved the expenditure. It’s my understanding that we have government policy that we’re not allowed to spend money that hasn’t yet been approved by the Legislative Assembly.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance or the Minister of Education, either one, but why is it that we have contravened our policy in regard to this particular expense? Thank you.