Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister in terms of their being diligent about their debt collection and the prevention, or are they just lending less money out to the public in the Northwest Territories as there were no write-offs for this year or last year. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There's a number of factors that play a role here. Year by year it would fluctuate. With our stronger economy in the Northwest Territories, the job market being as robust as it is, more people employed and being able to meet their payment plans and so on has been good in that sense. So it would fluctuate from year to year. Yes, over the last number of years, the government has tightened up on its collection side to ensure that we clean up that section of area and government accounting. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Next on the list I have Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a quick question with regard to the total amount of debts that the government wants forgiven in this act. After these debts are forgiven, does the government continue to pursue payment of these debts? I think we just write them off here in the House for government accounting procedures. I know other government organizations that do forgive debts, like LHOs, for instance, after they are forgiven and taken off the books, they still continue to pursue payment of some of these debts. Is that what the government does today? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, with our process that we have in place within government, our system is set up in two stages. The first one would be the Write-off of Debts Act that would come forward. That would stop the collection or the interest from continuing to grow. It clearly establishes a doubtful account. At that point, we still go after trying to collect the funds.

At this stage here, forgiveness of debts, we are actually forgiving the debt and no further collection process is undertaken from this point on. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can the Minister just tell me, is it just due to the lack of resources that we don't continue to pursue...Some of these debts are pretty big. Is it just because of human resources reasons that we don't do that? Is it the workload? What are the reasons that we don't continue to collect? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we undertake a number of avenues of trying to collect funds from those who owe money to the Government of the Northwest Territories through a number of initiatives, but there are a number of factors that we do have to live by as well as the Government of the Northwest Territories. Some of these accounts or loans, grants that were put in place had attached to them guarantees and so on in place, or a business that was established would shut down and go out of business and all assets may have been sold, but not enough to repay the full debt.

At times, we also run out of time. It's what is called statute barred that we would not be able to continue to pursue. That comes into play as well. When we have someone that would decease, that also sets this into action. When we reach what we would call a compromised settlement where we have looked at the situation realizing we aren't going to get the full amount that is owed and come up with a settlement on what we are able to come back with and collect. So there are a number of factors that do come into play here.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Next I will go for more general comments. Any further general comments? There are no further general comments, so we will move into consideration of Bill 10, Forgiveness of Debts Act, 2006-2007. Committee, we will stand down consideration of the clause-by-clause review and deal with the schedule of the bill to begin our review process. If I could direct committee's attention to please turn to page 3, schedule, debts forgiveness, items one to 15 are found on page 3. Are there any questions or comments on page 3?

Let's now turn to page 5, item 16 to 32. Are there any questions on those items?

Thank you. On page 7, items 33 to 49. Are there any questions?

Moving right along, we will turn to page 9, items 50 to 67.

The final page on the schedule is page 11, item 68 to 72. Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a quick question on the debt on the workers' compensation assessment for Northern American Tungsten Corporation for $101,871.80. Could the Minister provide some clarification on what that debt was for and why it's being written off? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Villeneuve. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that debt is being forgiven as a result of a court settlement. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Mr. Villeneuve.