This is page numbers 645 - 700 of the Hansard for the 14th Assembly, 6th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairman.

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NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Mr. Chairman, that's exactly what I am asking for. Will there be input from the 14th Assembly to look at the policies and guidelines we follow and make recommendations to the Board of Management or the Speaker that these things should be changed or considered through the transitional document for the 15th Assembly, that these are things maybe you should look at through amendments of the Legislative Assembly Act or look at the acts and regulations they have in place. I will use an example, this just happened lately with regard to a funeral. I got a request from a constituent to go to a funeral. So you get the request, I got a letter from the band council in McPherson to attend a funeral. Then I am told you can't go because it's outside your constituency.

The North is a small place. Everybody knows each other. Regardless of where you are from either through marriage or relationships or whatever, we are spread out throughout the whole NWT. A constituent moves from one riding to another person's riding. In the North, these are day-to-day things. That's what makes us unique. Everybody has a connection to someone else. Yet, we don't draw lines on a map and say sorry, if you die on that side of the line, you are out of luck. That's what it's coming down to. My view is in things like that, common sense should apply. Common sense should state that there is a direct association between yourself and a constituent and a family member, that if that's what the community is requesting that you do, so be it. But because the way the rules are, you can't be seen in another constituent's riding or be seen in another geographical area because it's outside of your geographical constituency. Common sense things.

As a Legislature, sometimes these rules that were put in place go overboard and the whole aspect of accountability is getting so stringent that every time you want to do anything, you have to get permission. As a Member and an elected official of this government, there should be some leeway given to Members to say you are accountable to your constituency first, but you are also accountable to the expenditures you make as a Member. There has to be a balance there. As a government, we sometimes lose sight of who we are representing here. Are we becoming the bureaucracy within the bureaucracy or are we there as a Legislature to ensure we have the flexibility to carry out our duties as elected Members without being hindered or put into a situation where there are things that you want to do and you don't have the ability to do it. People in our communities that want us to do something, they think we can pick up the phone and do it just like that. If you say sorry, under this rule I can't do that, I am restricted, I can't be seen as fund raising or donating money. Yes, rules are okay but we are in a small geographical area. The way things are done in the North aren't done in Ottawa or wherever else.

My concern is we made amendments to the Legislative Assembly act and we made some changes to the way Members have to abide by certain rules and there are times that we should review those rules to make sure they are workable and are working for the extent that they were put in place for, but not to handcuff the Member from trying to carry out his responsibility. There have been a lot of arguments between staff people in the Legislative Assembly and Members. I think if that's happening, it tells me there is something wrong with the way people are interpreting the rules we have in place. I think we should look at our rules to see what's working and what's not. All I am asking for is that we have the opportunity to do that during the term of what's left of this 14th Assembly, so we consider making some recommendations to the 15th Assembly to consider those changes.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair Leon Lafferty

Thank you. Mr. Speaker.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Tony Whitford

Tony Whitford Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The comments by the honourable Member are welcomed as they always are. The honourable Member will, for personal recollection, know that he's approached the board many times for dispensation on certain rules that affect everything from travel to housing. The board has always taken things into consideration when it's in the best interest of meeting the Member's needs and falling within the policies and guidelines as set up by this House. We aim to please.

The board would more than welcome any contribution the honourable Member would make by way of letter or presentations to the board to deal with specific issues. Accountability is an issue, I guess that's interpretable. We certainly are in the forefront of how we do things here. The public will watch how the Members conduct themselves and what we do for Members. Know that we are looking after the best interest of the people of the Territories. The Board of Management would certainly be happy to hear and read what the honourable Member would put forward to them.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair Leon Lafferty

Thank you. Mr. Dent.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Charles Dent

Charles Dent Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I was following the comments made by Mr. Nitah and Mr. McLeod earlier on the issue of Pages. I would certainly welcome the Board of Management taking a look at that issue and ensuring that they consider the points raised by those two Members in terms of bringing Pages in from communities outside of Yellowknife.

I know that the board is always concerned about budgets and living within our means. The fiscal outlook is not perhaps as bright as we would like. So, Mr. Chairman, I would like to suggest that when the board takes a look at that, they might want to take a look at where the money could come from. I know I would certainly be prepared to support a reduction in the Legislative Assembly's participation in Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. I think reducing it to the membership and the Speaker travelling to functions is probably appropriate. I would think we could save a considerable amount of money if we didn't send a raft of Members off to different things around the world with this organization. I, too, would encourage the board to take a look at it and fund it from within. Let's improve the access for Members to bring Pages in from their communities, but let's stay within the budget and stop sending so many Members to different parts of Canada and around the world. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair Leon Lafferty

Thank you. Mr. Speaker.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Tony Whitford

Tony Whitford Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his comments. If that's the direction that this House gives the board, we certainly would be pleased to entertain that kind of a suggestion. It is this House that approves the budgets and it would be this House that would authorize any kind of change such as have been suggested by all of the Members. If there is an increase in the Speaker's budget to bring in more Pages and to look after them by putting in the necessary stuff, if the House approves that kind of money, I am sure that that kind of a policy could probably be arranged. It's just that from past experience, perhaps not always the best teacher, but it seemed to have worked in the past and the Members were quite pleased with what they were doing, but times are changing. The board will take under advisement any suggestions made by the honourable Members to make the representation by Members and their constituencies more known in this House and to enhance cultural opportunities and the educational opportunities of young people in this House. The board will take direction from the House. Thank you.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

General comments. Mr. Nitah.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Steven Nitah Tu Nedhe

Mr. Chairman, I certainly appreciate the support from Members on this side of the House on my request for consideration of Pages being brought in from every community in the NWT. I think it's only fair that that's done.

Mr. Chairman, in the last little while we have been arguing quite passionately over harmonization policy. I have asked every department about their employees in the communities. I won't make the Speaker and the Legislative Assembly an exception, so I will ask the Speaker how many employees does this Legislative Assembly have in our communities? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Speaker.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Tony Whitford

Tony Whitford Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, we don't have any programs out in the communities other than the honourable Members and their constituency offices that they may or may not have and the equipment that they have. The business of the Legislative Assembly is in this building. Its investment is within the honourable Members, all 19 of them. That's as far as we can go with it at the moment. Every four years, we increase our staff considerably. We have some 360 people working for a short period of time to get all of the things necessary to conduct a proper and orderly election of the honourable Members every four years, but that's about the extent outside of the capital business.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair Leon Lafferty

Mr. Nitah.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Steven Nitah Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sometimes I think this government should use the number of hours used as a statistic instead of percentage of employees, especially in the area of affirmative action. However, Mr. Chairman, four of us, including yourself, when we exclude Cabinet, represent 28 communities. Yet, we don't have much more resources than those Members who represent one community or one community having seven Members. It takes a considerable amount of time, energy and resources to represent all those people, all those communities and all those interest groups.

For that reason, Mr. Chairman, I encourage the Speaker as chairman of the Board of Management to look at ways to improve our budget, so we can have people employed in each of our communities that we represent, so we could bring information from those communities and we could send information through the constituency assistants to the Members of our communities. Not only political direction but if RWED has a new program, we could inform our constituents through that office. If Education, Culture and Employment has a new program, we could inform our constituents through that office. Currently it's very difficult to do that. A lot of us at this time of the year have to consider laying off staff members that we have. We usually have one here in Yellowknife. It's not equitable to hire one staff member in Res and not one in Lutselk'e. If a person like yourself Mr. Chairman, represents three communities, you can't hire three people in each community because you don't have the budget. I think it's high time to recognize the workload that each Member has in their representation.

I don't know how many times we have said in this House we are experiencing unprecedented levels of development, political development. I have an Akaitcho Territory negotiating implementation of treaty. It's a government-to-government relationship with this government and the federal government. I represent the Metis Nation of the NWT. They are doing the same thing. I have three diamond mines in my constituency. We have a pipeline going down the Mackenzie Valley. We have all kinds of other developments. That takes our time. We just finished the Special Committee on the Review of the Official Languages Act. That took a lot of time. We had to create a special committee to review the relationship between this government and non-tax-based communities. That takes a lot of time. We just agreed to establish another community to look at harmonization a little closer. That's going to take time. That takes time away from our families and our constituents. I think it's only fair that this government recognizes it. The Members need the resources, so the Members can do the jobs they got hired and elected to do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair Leon Lafferty

Mr. Speaker.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Tony Whitford

Tony Whitford Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his comments. The board has always been responsive to the needs of the individual Members as they put their cases forward for not only the work that they do in their constituency, but their own comforts while they are here in the capital city. We have always managed to meet within our budget or seek a few dollars more to be able to accommodate and we greatly appreciate any comments and suggestions that would come forward to make our job easier and representation better across the Territories. That same offer still stands.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 696

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

General comments.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Some Hon. Members

Detail.

Detail

Office Of The Clerk

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Detail. Page 1-9, Office of the Clerk, operation expense, total operation expense, $7.592 million. Ms. Lee.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, may I get a breakdown under this item? I understand the committee's expenses are under this item as well. Could I get -- if not right now perhaps later on -- a breakdown of expenditures by each committee by reasonable categories of staffing, travel, contract services, what sort of contract services? Perhaps I could be provided with the general numbers, committee by committee, what the expenditures have been.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 696

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Speaker.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

March 11th, 2003

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Tony Whitford

Tony Whitford Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was going to suggest we provide that to the honourable Member later, but I do have the budget for 2002-2003 breakdown, if this committee will allow me to read it off. The Board of Management, for example, $100,000; clerk's conference, $5,000; special functions, $15,000; Christmas function, $5,000; CPA, $90,000; youth parliament, $15,000; information and privacy commissioner, $35,000; conflict of interest, $40,000; Accountability and Oversight, $195,500; Governance and Economic Development, $135,000; Social Programs, $85,000; Rules and Procedures, $7,000; and, Caucus, $50,000 for a total of $777,500. We can provide a copy later.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 696

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Ms. Lee.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate that info. Could I get a more detailed breakdown later on? Not included in there are special committee expenditures. Could I be provided with that, please?

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 697

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Speaker.

NWT Housing Corporation
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Tony Whitford

Tony Whitford Kam Lake

Mr. Chairman, because of the detail of that, would it be possible to provide that to the honourable Member later rather than here?