Michael McLeod

Our budgets are brought forward every year for review and passed by this House. So we’ll do the same thing next year, as the Member is aware.

The $95,000 is for O and M in the Wood Buffalo National Park, which is recoverable.

The budget was estimated to be $7 million.

Mr. Chairman, the Member’s correct; it’s a 50-50 cost share.

The reason the program was not continued was MACA decided no longer to fund it. They had other use for their dollars. I think they put it directly into the communities.

In response to the Member’s question whether we can actually put the application for dust suppressant through this program, the answer would be no. It’s not for actual construction. It’s for research and development.

Mr. Chairman, as we move forward and develop partnerships and sign MOUs with different aboriginal governments, different companies and different communities, we continually learn best practices. This is no different from the Deh Cho Bridge. The Deh Cho Bridge is a P3 project that had no policy, as has been mentioned before. It has since been drafted through Finance, I believe, and I’m sure as we take stock upon completion of this project, we will look at where we could have done better and learn from that. Thank you.

It reflects all the investments that the federal government made on the capital projects.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me, on my right, Mr. Russell Neudorf, who is deputy minister of Transportation. I also have, on my left, Daniel Auger, the assistant deputy minister.

The Member’s correct; there is an increase as a result of increased utility costs. That’s reflected in here.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I do have some opening comments.

This budget proposes increases of $4.6 million to cover forced growth and $1.8 million for strategic initiatives. It also includes two major structural changes to the department’s operations expenditures in the areas of amortization and utility and building maintenance budgets. This year the department has, on the advice of the Auditor General’s office, adjusted the way it accounts for the amortization of assets. This change realizes a 5 percent or $5 million increase to the department’s budget for amortization of capital assets...