Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2010-2011. This document provides an increase of $5.754 million for operational expenditures for departmental over-expenditures in the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

During the year-end process to finalize the 2010-2011 GNWT financial statements, adjustments are typically made to departmental expenditures to ensure the statements are prepared in accordance with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles. The 2010-2011 year-end process identified a number of adjustments that resulted in...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me deputy minister of Finance, Mr. Mike Aumond, and Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, the deputy secretary to the FMB.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, June 14, 2012, I will move that Bill 9, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2012-2013, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Madam Chair, as we indicated to Mr. Dolynny, that work is being undertaken. We will be bringing it back. I will make sure that committee has involvement in development of those regulations so that we all have confidence that we have the right structures and regulatory processes in place. Thank you.

Madam Chair, is it too late to make a motion that we extend to conclude the business before this House?

Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The commitment is to that discussion, so that it’s clear what the final determination is going to be. Our commitment is to have that discussion. Our commitment is to hopefully keep all this money in the budget so that we can have the discussion; and if the money is gone, then it limits the discussion. If the money stays in the budget, then you have room to do other things. So our hope is similar to the Member for Nahendeh, that we have that discussion going forward to resolve this, but we need the resources collectively to do that together. Thank you.

Madam Chair, Mr. Kalgutkar indicated we will be coming back with the regulations. We will be reporting on the fund. It’s put away for 20 years. The whole intent of doing that is to keep it as politically tamperproof as possible. We want to keep that in mind as we move forward. We will have some role for ourselves, but this will be done according to the standard practice of managing our investments within the policy framework and regulations that are going to be set for this Heritage Fund. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. For the purposes of this discussion, it was requested that we put more money back into Health and Social Services. We agreed to a number, 1.2 or so million dollars. The Minister of Health and Social Services has laid out where they would propose to spend that money, and we’re having the discussion today about the approval of the quantum number and new money that was being put into these different areas. We’ve talked about some of them already, the Heritage Fund, the emergency response money, and we’re going to talk about others in a bit here.

The Minister has indicated...

Madam Chair, I’ll just make a couple of comments and I’ll ask Mr. Kalgutkar to provide some of the technical detail. We are going to ensure that this fund is very carefully invested, that it’s protected. It’s been put away for enough time to accrue some value. So we’re not going to be chasing after any high-risk investments, but I’ll ask Mr. Kalgutkar to speak to some of the technical detail. Thank you, Madam Chair.