Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m trying to demonstrate the public’s right to know on this particular issue. The Minister is the one who has coined the dollar amount at $299 million for this project. He’s now saying, oh, don’t worry, the details will follow. The problem is the details follow after the project has been approved and the wheels are already moving.

Again I ask him, tell the House the cost of these particular royalties and demonstrate what is the Inuvialuit’s skin in the game on this particular project. Because as it stands today, they have zero investment in this game and all the game. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Inuvialuit have significant skin, as the Member calls it, in this game. The road program goes entirely over ISR lands in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. They have significant impact on this. They have a future need and requirement for granular materials. They have every right to charge royalties to people using granular materials from ISR lands. We, again, continue to negotiate with the Inuvialuit. We will get the best price. We’ll get a fair price. Like I said, hopefully the Member will be swayed by that price to support the project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to let you off where the Member for Hay River North was going on here with the efficiencies in our public service sector. The Minister of Human Resources left off on the program review office as being an outside review means of the process.

Can the Minister of HR indicate by what virtue would the program review office be considered an outside source? This is manned by internal personnel. Can the Minister clarify that, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t indicate that the program review office was an external, I said it was a means of view and that’s what it is. The program review office is designed to review or intended to review programs and services delivered by the GNWT, and it is a source for review. So that was my statement, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the Minister now clarifying, because I think I was a bit perplexed that this was an outside review. Coming from the private sector, we look at things a little differently. We look at efficiencies and scales, and you look at actual savings and design. The question that I need to ask is: Why can’t the public sector look at outside review to find efficiencies in our public service sector, especially in the city of Yellowknife? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I think we’ve got highly competent professionals within the public service. We’ve got HR professionals, we’ve

got technical analysts, we’ve got people who understand the business of government and do a regular risk, review and assessment to the services that we provide. Deputy heads are accountable and, at the end of the day, we bring the budget before this House, which includes all position counts, and the MLAs and the Ministers have an opportunity to talk about the positions, where they’re located and the types of works they do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t think the competency of our public sector or senior management is the question here. What we’re looking for, and the question, is the impartiality and the unbiased reporting structures. For example, time in motion studies is a baseline used in a lot of businesses to find efficiencies in design. The question to the Minister of HR here today is: Why are we reluctant to look at an outside source?

The program review office is no different than the police monitoring the police. That’s the question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in the history of the government, we have used external resources to help us review program areas and we will do that again. We may not have any currently happening, but it’s not something we’re adverse to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At least we’re getting down to the heart of the matter, and I think the Member for Hay River South said it, is will we look at an outside review process that we can look at finding efficiencies in design in our public sector?

I have indicated that we have no problem doing that; however, doing one for a public service of 5,400 employees might be a little excessive. We might be more interested in doing certain program areas. That has been done in the past and we’d be happy to do that again. On top of that, we have competent staff that are doing it on a regular basis, we have the program review office and we have the Legislature. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to ask Mr. Premier some questions that have been arising in the media lately about the application process for social insurance numbers, and it was raised in the Nunavut Legislature just recently as well. Apparently they

had made a change that you can only apply in person at service centre offices. This would make a big impact on my constituency where we have only one service office in Fort Simpson.

I’d like to ask the Premier if he’s aware of this communication from the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe I read the same media release/media reporting that the Member is quoting from. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m glad to see the Premier is well read. I guess the issue is that they have to apply in person. Can the Premier contact our federal counterparts and say this will have an impact in the Northwest Territories, especially for our fly-in communities, of which I have about two, and in the Nahendeh riding where we only have one public service office there? Thank you.

I will do that. This federal government is very responsive and I’m sure they will address this concern on a timely basis, but I will communicate that concern to them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The old application process was easy. Everybody could just grab an application and mail it in, and that sufficed for us here in the North. That’s the issue, because it’s very expensive to travel to Fort Simpson from my outlying communities, so if you could convey that as well. Thank you.

I will convey that to them. With the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link that will connect all of the communities through the Internet.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Public Works. When Minister Ramsay and I were in Fort Good Hope last Friday, we were notified by the leadership of a fuel spill at the tank farm. When I did more research, I noticed there were two fuel spills, one on February 8

th and one on February 22

nd . I want to ask the

Minister, what’s the communication protocol to let us Members know when there are incidents like that that have a significant damage to the communities. What is the Minister doing to straighten up his department to notify the MLAs right away? Why do we have to wait a month for us being told? Worse yet, to go into the community and find out firsthand.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Public Works, Mr. Abernethy.