Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just briefly I want to just draw Members’ attention up and away from this specific issue that is on the table and just remind everybody about our fiscal circumstances, similar to what Mr. Menicoche was talking about.

We have a very modest capital budget, a very rigorous process that takes a great deal of patience and hard work to get projects on from across the North. It’s a process that everybody watches very carefully. We also are dealing with a project – I want to mention this project again – of the Stanton Hospital that is going to be the biggest capital project we...

We have to look at the consolidated public accounts process as part of the overall budgeting process where we do business plans, we do reviews, main estimates, and where we spend a full year either getting ready for the budget or cleaning up after the budget and then having a short, very, very short pause before we renew that process.

Once again, we have skilled, trained staff. We have qualified managers and we now have, of course, this clear political direction from this body, from the government, that public accounts have to be paid attention to and it has to be given its due. We are doing...

This is a process that has some history to it now, as I’ve indicated in my previous answer. I’ve taken this on, along with the deputy minister of Finance, as a critical issue. It’s been pointed out clearly by the Auditor General that we were lacking in this area and we acknowledged that. So, we have the political commitment. We have been working with all of the boards and agencies and government departments to make sure that they know that there is an emphasis on this particular function and that these reports have to get done. We’ve met with chairs and board presidents to make sure that they...

Thank you. When net metering was initially looked at, the focus was to entice and encourage folks in the thermal community, where the costs are very, very significantly higher than the hydro zone. We’ve built this array of supports, but the issue of the taxation, of loans, those types of things have not been considered. We have to wait and see how it works in the hydro zone where we’ll, in effect, be exchanging one type of renewable energy for another as opposed to the thermal zone where we know we’re going to be replacing diesel with solar or wind, whatever other alternative energy is used...

Thank you. If the Member is interested, we can pull together what we think the cost will be on a community-by-community basis for the two zone bases, the thermal zone and the hydro zone. But clearly it’s not going to be the full cost that the Power Corporation has to pay to generate hydro, so the retail rate would be different. Thank you.

We have, and we are going to be taking over April 1st, a lot of the authorities through the Devolution Agreement. We have an environmental assessment process that is in place. There are further regulatory adjustments being made. We have a close working relationship with the Aboriginal governments across the Northwest Territories, especially in the Sahtu where this oil play is taking place.

As a government, we have a stated commitment as we go forward, to this balance between economic development and protecting the environment, which we hold very clear as a priority. So when you combine all of...

As I’ve indicated, this guidance document, in draft form, has been worked on for quite some time and we are specifically sending it to committee for their review and their feedback. So we’re not in the position, since the Member hasn’t seen the document yet, to have that discussion.

It is on its way to committee and we will look forward to having that feedback and discussion with them on a go-forward basis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Members who brought this motion forward and articulated their concerns and the concerns that they’ve heard.

As responsible Ministers, we are obligated to look at what we’re doing, what we’ve done and the contents of that report. We’re going to do that. We’re going to do it in a very thorough way, and we will look at all the recommendations and there will be a response forthcoming.

In the meantime, that motion is a recommendation to government and we will be abstaining, but before I sit down, I do want to point out that I concur there has been an...

Thank you. The biggest tool we have is the ones that we are applying and showing progress with. It has become more and more visible as the committee has taken a more active role in reviewing public accounts. Those that are not derelict, but those that are late, those that are tardy, those agencies, boards now have to suffer the scrutiny of not only the Minister of Finance but also of committee, the public, and we’ve put a value on this process. By putting that value on the process we are, over time – a fairly short period of time – getting all the involved boards, agencies and government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The role of public accounts is an important one. When I became Finance Minister, there was a significant delay in reports being done. The public accounts had sort of fallen out of attention and I made it a point, as the Finance Minister, to meet with the Auditor General, along with the deputy minister. We made the commitment that we would pay attention and we would reinforce the importance of time of reports, that the public accounts was an important function, and then the Legislature, as well, took it upon themselves and the committees to take a much more active role...