Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm glad the clock got started there. Yeah, well, I'm glad the Minister volunteered all of that because that was my next question actually, because in the letter that this government sent to I'm not sure exactly. I guess it was probably Minister Vandal about the regional study that the Tlicho government has asked, there was kind of two things that our government mentioned in there. One was that we supported participant funding but they said the other thing was that a regional study shouldn't delay the planning for this road in any way. And that's not what the Minister just...

Merci, Madam le Presidente. I too would like to recognize a Frame Lake resident in the gallery, Sheena Adams, whose the program coordinator for Arctic Energy Alliance, and former Yellowknife city council colleague Mark Heyck serves as the executive director. So I'm sure they're here to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Arctic Energy Alliance, and I welcome them to the proceedings today. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Yeah, okay, thanks. Look, I'll cut this short. I think that this is probably better financial management but it still reflects our overspending on not overspending, over budgeting of capital and we just we, for a whole variety of different reasons, just can't get the money out the door. We can't get the work done, whether it's COVID, whether, you know, there's no contractors available to do the work, whatever, you know, supply chain delays, maybe there's not enough folks in procurement services to get this stuff out. I have no sense of that. But I think this is just a reflection of, again...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So is all of this stuff in compliance with the fiscal responsibility policy? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. It's one last one maybe, and the Minister already touched on this, but for I guess 20232024 oh, well it looks like for 20222023 we've gone now from an operating surplus to probably an operating deficit. How is that going to be in compliance with the fiscal responsibility policy in light of the capital estimates that are also before the House? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. So I think now that I've got this up in front of me, I can see where some of these money so there's a lot of money being carried forward for some rather large megaprojects, things like the Fort Providence transmission line, the Whati transmission line. What does this do to the scheduling of these projects? And, you know, say the maybe the greenhouse gas reductions that these projects were supposed to deliver as part of the energy strategy, how does this affect the scheduling of all of this stuff? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, so how do we make up that $42 million deficit? Is it shortterm borrowing that we have to incur to cover that and yeah, I'll start there. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So I think the Minister mentioned in her opening remarks that there's a cash flowing forward of a number of infrastructure projects, and I'm furiously trying to get the actual document in front of me, but can the Minister explain why it was necessary to cash flow this money forward? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, actually believe it or not, I now understand it. There's an offsetting amount that's coming in as revenue from the federal government, and we just have to show the money going out. And that's what this is about. So thank you for that explanation late on a Tuesday night.

So there's some money in here for flood relief and I, of course, support that, but is this the end of it or can we expect to see more funding in future supplementary appropriations just for flood relief? And my next one will be about whether there's anything in here for planning to in terms of longer term mitigation...