Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to update the people of the Northwest Territories on management actions for barren ground caribou herds.

The new population estimates for the Beverly and Ahiak caribou herds, led by the Government of Nunavut, highlight the need for regular surveys and monitoring so we have a clear picture of herd status and can identify changes and deal with them in a timely manner.

The last calving ground survey of the Beverly herd was done in June 1994 and the herd was estimated at 276,000 animals. The survey done in June 2011 estimated 124,000 in the Beverly herd and 83...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s to compensate us for providing that service to Nunavut.

That is in reference to the flood at Nahanni Butte.

Thank you. We are going to apply ourselves and resources to answer the questions that we’ve been talking about in the House today and we’ll be coming forward with the cost projections. We have to do the needs analysis almost on a client-by-client basis to see how different and how varied they are, to sort out those complexities, but we intend to do that in the coming year so we can make some hard decisions about the potential to first repatriate and try to identify with more clarity the trends, and what do we need to do on the prevention side. Thank you.

As we move forward with the resolution to the energy challenges in Norman Wells, they will be getting, of course, the full support that we have to offer both on the Housing Corporation side and other government agencies as required. But that work is still underway and not quite clear in terms of the final fix that we’re looking at in Norman Wells. There has been a significant amount of move to biomass, for example, for heat. There was initially about a $39 million ask by the community for a major district heating, which I believe they’ve moved away from, so we’re working with them, plus we’re...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The trend has been slow and steady increases. The information we have here indicates that there was $1.2 million in 2006-07. In 2012-13 that number, from the information I have, is $8.6 million. In 2006-07 it was for 35 adults. For 2012-13 it was for 55 adults. Thank you.

We’re going to do some base adjustments to increase the amount of the reserve. As you go through the list, as Mr. Aumond has said a number of times, we were dealing last year with flood, fire and pestilence. As well, we’ve had some significant increases on the cost for services for individuals in care for Health and Social Services.

Mr. Chair, of course other jurisdictions ask the same of us. For example, with all of our students down south, if someone gets sick, then they bill us. They have to be put into the process and get reimbursed. I’m not aware of the particulars, so I see the Minister of Health is right here and he could probably give us maybe enough detail for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s a $10 million reserve and we’re over that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is another service that is demand driven and fluctuates. The target adjustment of $4 million has already been approved in principle for 2014-15. We are looking at trying to… This is one of the areas where we want to make a base adjustment. Thank you.