Michael Miltenberger

Thank you. I don’t think it’s a case of anybody being bad guys. We are looking at a budget. We agree on the Heritage Fund, we agree on keeping the money out of programs and services, we agree to put some in the Heritage Fund, some in capital and some for debt repayment. Now we’re having a spirited, healthy debate about how much and how do we manage that along with all the other obligations we have and the factors and the variables we have to look at that are financial pressures on us.

In terms of corporate income tax, as we’ve laid out a number of times, it’s a very complicated process. The...

No, we did not ignore that request. We have spent a lot of time consulting, working with committee on the main estimates that are before this House. In my budget address, we laid out what we used in calculating and determining that budget, and one of those factors was as we looked at all the variables that are before us, the challenges, the financial issues, we saw the way forward as a government with 5 percent, recognizing that we had to meet these other objectives as well.

The committee recommended to us 25 percent. We heard that, as well, in other parts of the territory as well as we heard...

I don’t have that level of HR detail, and I don’t have the ability to ask my colleague from Human Resources to provide the statistics, but we have those numbers available, it’s just that I don’t have them before me here today.

There is some certainty in regards to the Lands department and those kind of organizational changes where there’s going to be a Lands department in each regional centre. Those decisions are there. Some of the other components that may be decentralized, we’re still looking at what makes the most sense and what is available in terms of capacity in communities to absorb potential positions, and that will be happening over the next few months.

The housing piece, the $22 million that is going to small communities, the actual location has yet to be determined, and of course, we’re doing some of the initial planning subject to approval in this House. The office space requirements, we’re looking at some communities where it seemed to be an issue, and as well, some communities may have other housing challenges, like the small communities, so that’s being looked at as well. We do know through our current process that’s now before this House, there are structural changes coming with the new departments. For example, we talked about, in the...

Thank you. If the Member will recollect, before Christmas we had a meeting and I indicated to the Members that we were intent on coming forward to try to address this issue and that we would keep committee fully engaged and apprised. We had a first inaugural meeting with the mine presidents as well as the chamber representatives this week, just to see if there was a shared interest in trying to address this issue, and there is, so we’re in the process of striking a high level senior working group to try to look at some of the things like the immigrant Nominee Program, the fly-in/fly-out issue...

Thank you. There are unfunded positions. There’s still a gap of about 7 percent on the benefits that the departments are funded with for positions that the departments are required to cover off. There is money that’s used for casuals to offset the vacancies, contracts that are used to offset the vacancies. Some folks may be away on leave. So it’s a very complicated list. It’s not just empty or full. There are many issues to consider.

One of the things I would point out, as well, in the budget address, is we’re devoting $22.6 million, I believe it is, over three years to put housing in small...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2014-2015.” Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in 54 days we will be taking responsibility for the management of our lands, waters and resources. With only 605 days left in the life of the 17th Legislative Assembly, when most governments are taking stock, we are taking on new challenges and embracing new opportunities.

Two years ago this Assembly set out to restore fiscal balance, protect programs and services, and responsibly fund infrastructure investment. We achieved this in the last two budgets by reducing spending growth to half of what it was five years ago. Entering year three of our fiscal plan, we have shown that by...

We talked about if we park the $1 billion request to bump up our borrowing limit to the side which is going to be geared to major economic infrastructure, when we talked about the Heritage Fund, the resource revenue sharing, we talked about debt reduction, paying down the debt and we talked about investing in infrastructure. Those are the three areas and we are working to keep the debt reduced to within $100 million cushion of our $800 million borrowing limit. We’ve talked to people about that. We’ve talked to people about the things we need to do about the Stanton renovation at $350 million...