Michael Miltenberger

This document, I’d be happy to hold up from last year’s. It’s about as thick as this one. The same principle that I’m articulating here today applies to last year’s budget as well. There are audits done. If the Members have specific concerns that they don’t think we’ve met, then we’d be happy to come back and talk to committee. We review the main estimates. We review budgets. We are working with and at the behest of committees when they have issues they want to address.

The money the Member’s talking about is the several millions of dollars that were added late in the last budget. The vast...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This consensus government is one of the most collaborative, inclusive governments in the country, with the exception of possibly Nunavut. We collectively work together for six months to do business plans, draft the main estimates, bring a budget together that reflects the priorities of this collective Legislative Assembly, and then it is passed in this House. This is the Member’s sixth budget cycle, if my memory serves me correctly. Then the bill is assented to.

The departments all have the business plans. The Members all are aware of what’s in the main estimates. Then...

Mr. Speaker, as Finance Minister I can tell you that I think, in fact, this budget, the last budget, every budget that I have been involved in in this House is a good budget. They tend to pass unanimously. We are doing an enormous amount of good work here. There is $1.6 million being put to work and the vast majority of it is spent on programs. It’s audited every year by the Auditor General. There are all sorts of other reviews done on an ongoing basis. We, of course, will continue to work with committee and the Members to make sure that we have the best budget possible dealing with...

This document here that we’re debating in this House – this is the priorities of this Assembly, and these Members and this government – is $1.6 billion worth of priorities. We take our job very, very seriously. It is filled with dollars, over 60 cents of every dollar going into social programs. We are taking a very careful look at things that are very difficult, things like fracking. We have put together a business plan that reflects the times we live in. We have reflected the input of the Members. This is six months of work into this document.

The Member wants to know what we’re doing with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, March 4, 2013, I will move that Bill 3, Wildlife Act, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, as well, would like to take this opportunity to recognize three fine constituents from Thebacha, Bea Campbell, Ib Kristensen and the president of the Seniors’ Society, Leon Peterson and thank them for coming and welcome to the Assembly.

Thank you. The commitment was, of course, that if the committee identifies an issue and they want myself, as Finance Minister, or other Ministers to appear before them and discuss a particular issue, of course we are there to work with committees as with all or any issues. If travel is one of them, we’ll do that, keeping in mind a lot of the conditions, but we can have that full and frank discussion with committee about the type of travel, the amount of travel, the cost of travel, the reason for travel and all those types of things. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I would suggest to the Member that that would make a topic of discussion at the Refocusing Government committee, that I am chair of, could take a look at it. The answer would be we will look at how we do this. As we move into another budget cycle, we are keeping the financial discipline on government through this coming year, a 2 percent cap on growth. We are being frugal already, but we can never be too careful. We will have that matter reviewed at our next Refocusing Government meeting. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled Waste Reduction and Recovery Program, 2011-2012 Annual Report. Thank you.

Thank you. This is a big territory, 1.3 million square miles. A lot of it is not connected by road. We have enormous costs to do the jobs necessary. We’ve also made a commitment in this House to support all the communities. We’ve made a commitment in this House and this government to support consultation, community visits, getting the government out of Yellowknife to the people.

We appreciate the need for using technology like telehealth and those types of things. The Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line, we believe, will improve the efficiencies of the health system, it will improve and enable us...