This is page numbers 1300 to 1342 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 2nd 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 health.

Topics

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Paul Delorey

Paul Delorey Hay River North

As Members know, the area out front that we’re talking about, for the road going around the loop and even the parking lot for that matter…. When it was built, they did it to disturb as little of the environment out there as they possibly could. The road is really narrow. We’re still dealing with the swamp area out there regardless of what we do. The engineers have actually suggested we may widen that area, but it would be more or less for road stabilization — to try to maintain a half-decent road out there. We still want to be very conscious. I don’t think the mentality on what we do out front has changed an awful lot as far as not wanting to disturb the environment around that area any more than we absolutely have to. One thing we

will be looking at is basically widening it for road stability.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Chairman, taking advantage of widening it due to road stability may be the opportunity to save on requirements for future parking. Again, it’s the spillover problem that has people parking there anyway, and this would just help clean it up a little bit. I would seek some thoughts from the Speaker to see if they can include that in the review when they do the study to widen the road based on stability. My assumption would be that it would only be a few extra feet wide in order both to accommodate the stability and to ensure there is safe passage of vehicles. We parked on one side of that during occasions that required…. There aren’t really that many occasions, yet you get people parking there anyway. So it would go a long way.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Paul Delorey

Paul Delorey Hay River North

Again, we can look at that. Our main concern is to have some stability in the roadway out there and address the parking problem that we have, probably through adding some extra parking to the lot. That’s certainly one thing we could look at — whether just widening the base out there would help us out with parking when there is a major event here. So we will look at that.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. I look forward to any future discussion on that. I hope the Speaker would keep me informed. This is an issue I brought to the Speaker’s Office. Since I’ve been here as a Member, it’s been an issue raised to me on a number of occasions by constituents who’ve come here and there’s no parking because the parking lot is full. I don’t think creating a new parking lot specific to parking would be the right way to go. I think we could meet a couple of these problems head-on by widening the road. I look forward to seeing some details and also further encourage the Speaker to keep my office informed on this matter, because as he knows, I think I even wrote him as of November regarding this matter. Again, it continues to be an issue, so I’ll take that as a commitment to keep me informed.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Paul Delorey

Paul Delorey Hay River North

Yes, we will. Of course, all these issues are considered at the Board of Management level and through the Clerk’s Office. We will keep the Member informed as to where we plan on going with this.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Okay, we’re on page 1-13, Activity Summary, Office of the Clerk, Operations Expenditure Summary: 7.826 million.

Legislative Assembly, Activity Summary, Office

of the Clerk, Operations Expenditure Summary: $7.826 million, approved.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Page 1-14, information item, Office of the Clerk, Active Positions. Ms. Bisaro.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a question. The Speaker indicated we are eliminating two positions, and I believe one of them is a vacant library tech position. But there’s no change in the number of positions from ’07–08 to ’08–09. So if I could have an explanation, please.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Speaker.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

June 15th, 2008

Paul Delorey

Paul Delorey Hay River North

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Yes, we’re eliminating one position. However, we’re adding a new finance administration clerk position, so that offsets the position. That’s why the total employees is the same.

Legislative Assembly, Activity Summary, Office

of the Clerk, Active Positions, information item (page 1-14), approved.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

We’ll continue on page 1-15, information item, Office of the Clerk, Active Position.

Legislative Assembly, Activity Summary, Office

of the Clerk, Active Positions, information item (page 1-15), approved.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Moving on to page 1-17, Active Summary, Office of the Speaker, Operations Expenditure Summary: $253,000.

Legislative Assembly, Activity Summary, Office

of the Speaker, Operations Expenditure Summary: $253,000, approved.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Page 1-18, information item, Office of the Speaker, Active Positions.

Legislative Assembly, Activity Summary, Office

of the Speaker, Active Positions, information item (page 1-18), approved.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

We’ll continue on page 1-19, information item, Office of the Speaker, Active Position.

Legislative Assembly, Activity Summary, Office

of the Speaker, Active Positions, information item (page 1-19), approved.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Page 1-21, Activity Summary, Expenditures on Behalf of Members, Operations Expenditure Summary: $5.769 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr.

Chair. The

compensation and benefits amount from ’07–08 to ’08–09 has increased significantly, and I was just wondering why.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Paul Delorey

Paul Delorey Hay River North

Mr. Chairman, most of that comes from pension expenses and an increase to constituency budgets. If we want to get some further detail on that, we’ll ask Mr. Lovely to expand on that.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Lovely.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Lovely

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In prior years the pension expense was budgeted under Fees and Payments, and it’s more appropriately budgeted under Compensation and Benefits. In prior years, as well, the compensation and benefits for the constituency assistants were budgeted under contract services, but they are actually paid through our payroll system. So it was more appropriate to budget them up there to C&B.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Next on the list I have Mr. Bromley.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Mr. Lovely very efficiently answered my questions at the same time. Thank you.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Page 1-22, Expenditures on Behalf of Members, Operations Expenditure Summary: $5.769 million.

Legislative Assembly, Activity Summary,

Expenditures on Behalf of Members, Operations Expenditure Summary: $5.769 million, approved.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Moving on to page 1-23, Activity Summary, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Operations Expenditure Summary: $374,000. Mr. Hawkins.

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, just a quick question regarding…. Although the Chief Electoral Officer doesn’t oversee municipal elections, has there been any advancement on this issue to consider making the offer first to municipalities to oversee their elections through this office?

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Legislative Assembly
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Speaker.