Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Without question, the recent announcement of the draft Protected Areas Strategy caught the resource industry by surprise with clear word from the resource industry that the Northwest Territories was no longer safe to do business with. My questions today are for the Premier.

Can the Premier indicate how does this recent unchecked announcement from the Premier’s Cabinet as a goal to conserve 40 percent of NWT’s land mass support his vision of a strong and prosperous territory? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In continuing my daily ritual of evaluating the performance of the McLeod government, today I want to reference my tabled document of Tuesday, September 29, 2015, and spend some time on our revenue concerns, both federal and own source.

By all accounts, our GNWT revenue grew by 149.79 percent from 2000 to today, and was substantially more than operation spending growth of 115 percent during the same period. However, with federal transfers currently accounting for more than 70 percent of GNWT revenue, and with only modest NWT population growth over these 15 years, we...

Thank you. Again, I’m getting a very blurred response, Madam Chair. The money saved last year is definitely being spent this year. So at the end of the day, the net impact is zero. The question still remains with the two installments that we’ve had already on this project, there’s a third installment left on these 802 firebombers. It’s going to be a small residual left, according to the math if you’re looking at the appropriations. Again, are we still on target of a slightly over $30 million project for the purchase of the 802s? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We’ll turn our attention to Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the astute knowledge of the Finance Minister in reply, but the one question that was not answered is we know there’s another installment of this project in the next capital budget. We know we’re faced here with a discretionary amount due to a fluctuating dollar. We know that the original project was somewhere in that $30 million range. My question was, and still stands, what do we anticipate for next year’s appropriation and how does this affect the overall evaluation of the total project in terms of the cost? Thank you.

Thank you. Committee, we’ll defer page 37, capital estimates. I turn your attention to pages 38 and 39, capital estimates, administrative and support services, infrastructure investments, $44.134 million. Does committee agree? Mr. Bromley.

If Members remember, last year we were accelerating the program to take advantage of, I believe, the dollar, I think, if memory serves me right, and now we’re, this year, looking at a cost varied to the currency value.

I guess my question is: What did we learn from this project and what changes are going to be made to mitigate purchases of this magnitude, especially in US dollars in the future? Has the department managed to come up with a different set of policies or directives on how to deal with purchases in US dollars?

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Ms. Bisaro.