On behalf of the government, the comptroller general has informed the committee that action was being taken on a number of the issues that were raised in the Auditor General's report. However, the government has not set firm timelines as to when these actions will be completed. During this review, the committee was informed that regulations for the NWT Development Corporation, and I quote: "should be able to happen before Christmas"; a third party accountability framework will be completed sometime this winter; a study of best practices has been completed and reforms in contracting practices will go forward to the Financial Management Board in the near future; and that, and I quote: "quite a bit" is being done to inspect sites of potential environmental contamination and "take remediation action where it is appropriate". Mr. Speaker, the lack of firm timelines does not enhance committee confidence that the government is acting expeditiously on these matters.

The lack of regulations for the NWT Development Corporation, the need to assess environmental restoration costs, and the NWT Development Corporation not collecting information on jobs created to show compliance with Financial Management Board records of decision are all issues that have been raised in previous Auditor General's Reports dating back to the mid 1990s. Yet these issues to date remain unresolved. This raises the concern of how seriously the government regards the Auditor General's reports and the committee's review of the reports. It is now time for government to become serious and put into place an action plan to address these issues; an action plan with benchmarks, an accountability framework and timelines.