Daniel McNeely

Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. The motion is on the floor to report progress. The motion is in order and is nondebatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

Carried

I will rise and report progress. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question prior to the long weekend is: will the Minister, along with the Minister responsible for Seniors and the Minister responsible for HSS, taking Minster Moses' lead on our request, coordinate a seniors' gathering in preparation for the opening of the Sahtu Regional Health Centre later this spring? Mahsi.

I am glad to hear there is a wide variety of programs available to our elders. Can the Minister explain the elders' fuel subsidy program in general detail? For example, does the rate of subsidy differ from smaller communities to regional communities?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Our NWT elders deserve the utmost respect and expect their government's support on elders' subsidy programs; their well-earned financial securities are designed to support their retirement. The Government of the Northwest Territories offers a variety of security benefits to the elders' community. It is comforting to know that both federal and territorial levels of government are there to assist.

Mr. Speaker, offering eligibility and screening the applications is and can be questionable. Like many other policies offered by the government, reviews on efficiencies can be...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The annual budgets of the Government of the Northwest Territories are basically covering two major areas: number one, operations and maintenance; number two, capital spending for upgrades of our continuous infrastructure. Our capital spending helps provide investment certainty for the businesses that operate within our territory, as well as investors.

The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to face many challenges with aging infrastructure, aging assets, building new infrastructure, modernizing our regulatory systems, unforeseen expenditures resulting from the...

Will the Minister share some of the information on the highlights of the process for the P3 tendering process within the RFP?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I mentioned I was going to be talking about procurement for the P3 projects that this government seems to be leaning more towards in the process of tendering. My question to the Minister of Finance is: can the Minister confirm the GNWT's P3 policy allowance for NWT vendor preference within that policy? Mahsi.

Thank you. I look forward to the information on the process and the schedules from the Minister. Mahsi.

The driven approach for the P3 public/private partnership initiatives is to incorporate a P3 corporation, which this government has done. On our general tendering process, previous governments have incorporated the BIP policy to allow northern preference in giving that extra advantage to the local seasonal operators of our business community. In the concessionaire agreement that follows as part of the P3 initiative or tenement process, can the Minister confirm whether there's a BIP similar allowance in that concessionary agreement?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will join the procurement train here and have questions for the appropriate Minister. More specifically, I see the values and the process of procurement only to ensure and build confidence in our private sector, Mr. Speaker, to ensure confidence in our private sector. I can only ask the questions later on to the appropriate Minister more specifically in regards to the P3 process. Mahsi.