Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The issue of budgeting, first, for fires, we’ve had some modest increases to the base, and it’s come up a number of times. This particular year, last summer was very intensely dry, a lot of lightning, a lot of fires by significant values at risk, especially in the Deh Cho. The fact that we were competing for scarce resources, we had to bring in other crews, other planes.

As it pertains to the 215s, the Member is correct; the 215s are nearing the end of their best-before date and some would say they’ve passed that. We’re struggling to keep them in the air. Just with the...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The letter has been responded to. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would ask if the Minister of Transportation could possibly respond to that.

That number, we can discuss now, but it’s actually part of the O and M supp that’s going to come following this particular deliberation on these two very specific capital items. If it’s the wish of the Chair to blend the two together, we can have that discussion.

Mr. Speaker, we would be more than willing and interested to appear before a committee to lay out in detail the specifics of the payroll tax as we have it set up now and the work that we’ve done in looking at alternatives and options to increasing. We have, in fact, done that in the past and it may be time to have another look at it. I would be interested in looking at the Parkland Institute paper, to see if there is something new that hasn’t been contemplated. As well, I think the big issue is the leakage and what is the best way to prevent that leakage of all that money going directly south...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The universal number is there. So the Member wants to know the breakdown. We’ve got heating costs, we’ve got electricity costs, we’ve got conversion costs for synthetic natural gas, power rates have gone up, as the Member has indicated, the price of synthetic natural gas is high. So at one point the Member is saying there’s a problem with the $1.6 million, or is he wanting to know the breakdown in a tighter, clarified way that would allow us to put percentages on what does the heating fuel cost of 7 percent for electricity, as he’s indicated, the conversion costs...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I laid out what the bylaws say and the money is to be used for the benefit of the Legislative Assembly, so there is a significant amount of discretion. The Board of Management looked at what was in the best interests of the Legislature, both in terms of $275,000 that’s going towards infrastructure improvements, and then, since this is a building of the people, you have a celebration of the fact that we have paid off the mortgage. We had some surplus left, and we have a good reason to celebrate, and so they combined the two. It’s been checked through by the Law Clerks...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can commit to get that information for the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The infrastructure costs, the conversion costs are going to be one time for the synthetic natural gas. There has, in fact, been a modest decrease in overall consumption. So as the energy issues both in Norman Wells and Inuvik play out, we’ll see where we end up, finally, when it comes to an ongoing energy source.

There also has been, not so much in the Housing Corporation, but there’s been a migration by a lot of individuals to biomass and other forms of heating energy that they control on their own just because of the uncertainty. But we anticipate that the costs...