Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2013-2014. This document outlines an increase of $17.757 million in operations expenditures for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

The major items included in the supplementary estimates are:

$9.7 million for the Department of Executive for funding for costs associated with the implementation of the final Devolution Agreement. The net impact on government operations is nil as these costs will be offset with funding to be received from the federal government.

$2.5 million for the Department of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we are going to see is efficiencies in effectiveness and service delivery. We are going to see avoided costs, especially on the procurement model side. This is not a cost savings where we are going to realize, as the Member said, millions, hundreds of thousands of dollars of money. What we are looking at with the resources we have available, how do we better organize ourselves to be more responsive and effective and this is what you’re going to get, and you will have, over the long-term, the avoided costs, the realization of the coordinated approach we’re taking...

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to waive Rule 69(2) and have Bill 11 moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you.

---Consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the procurement side, one of the clear areas, of course, is anticipation through volume discounts when we have more coordinated and integrated procurement processes. Those economies of scale will become more clearly evident across the board. In a number of ways we have different departments, different regions all doing their own purchasing. I believe I mentioned, in a previous sitting, using the bundled water plants as an example, where we recognized that as a government we did five water plants in a coordinated way, we had a common procurement policy, we had a...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 23, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2013-2014, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we are going to get is some efficiencies and economies of scale where, recognizing that as a large organization, a corporation, there are some core services where you need to have consistency and integration where there is some standard volume directed processes, transaction issues, as Mr. Aumond indicated, where you need that consistency yet you can have more economies of scale. We are better coordinated. We tried to have a very devolved, decentralized type of model, which works in some program areas, but as we’ve discovered with information, IT, with finances...

Mr. Speaker, there is a wide variety of herd sizes. Some are literally in the few thousands to some that are over 100,000. The numbers are not all going to be the same.

We are going to look herd by herd. We are going to work with the co-management boards and all of the appropriate stakeholders. When we have any specific information, we will bring that forward. Thank you.

If the Member will think back, we started on an emergency basis where the running out of natural gas in Inuvik was declared imminent, that there was a need to minimize the load and pressure on the existing gas reserves. That work was done, recognizing that synthetic natural gas was the short-term emergency option. That work was done. In the meantime, the market in the development of liquid natural gas has proceeded in Canada where that type of resource was available. We recognize at the same time, as we move across to the Northwest Territories with our alternative energy, that there is...

The Member has made a harsh condemnation of the House and, by extension, the Legislature. He’s made some sweeping, universal condemnation of this government and the position we take on the balance, the priorities of the 17th Legislative Assembly, the balance between protecting the environment and at the same time balancing that with the need to be able to look at having an economy that is resource-based in this case.

We are doing that. When you look at the work we’re doing across the board as a government on water, on the tools devolution will give us, when you look at the work we’re doing on...

That is what is anticipated, yes.