Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you could please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Thank you.

Mr. Beaulieu, if you would be kind enough to introduce your witnesses to the Chamber, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Again, committee, we’re on page 58, and continuing on with detailed questions I have Mr. Blake.

We still hear that the department here is compliant. We haven’t seen the final results yet, but I can tell you that the standards of practice are in violation, so to be fair I will ask this one more time and offer to the Minister of Finance to clearly articulate why his department refuses to deal with environmental remediation costs properly.

Thank you, committee. I would like to thank the Minister and Mr. Williams for joining us this evening. Can I get the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witness out? Thank you.

Committee, keeping on with the capital estimates, I will ask committee to turn to the Public Works and Services section. With that, we will turn it over to the Minister responsible to see if he has any witnesses he would like to bring into the Chamber. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Historically, environmental remediation costs have been handled as a post-year and supplementary appropriation by this government. Given our new-found post-devolution powers as stewards of the land and environmental cleanup, this current practice of seeing an appropriation for the annual accrual for such liability is a direct violation of current public accounting standards of practice. According to the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, these new accounting standards require these remediation costs to be done up front.

Can the Minister of Finance confirm that the...

Thank you, committee. Again, if you can return back to page 53 for total infrastructure. Municipal and Community Affairs, total infrastructure investments, $28.002 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Stewart.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How worried should we be about our financial future as a government? Well, if you listen to our Finance Minister, he’ll try to reassure that his department restored the balance between revenues and expenditures. But did they? He’ll tell you this administration works on paying down their short-term borrowing debt and focuses on building their cash reserves. But do they? All I can recall is that our short-term borrowing limit was increased by this administration from $175 million to $275 million less than two years ago and we were told last week they want another $25...

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. General comments. Since I don’t see any more general comments, does committee agree to proceed in detail?