Michael Miltenberger

Madam Chair, the point is that this bridge is getting done. It is going to be one of the most impressive pieces of infrastructure we have in the North. I can tell you from my experience and now going on five years at the table with this project, that it is a very complex process with lots of moving parts.

We have been over all of the bumps in the road that we have had, and the hurdles we have had, and we have managed our way through them all. We’re going to do that in this case, as well, and point out how close we are to the finish line. We want to be cutting the ribbon here in November to have...

The key is the resources we’re putting on the table, as Mr. Neudorf indicated, they’re going to have two shifts working instead of one. They’re going to be working 20 hours a day as opposed to one shift with half the men. If you do the math, do the building schedule, then you can see that if we don’t concentrate those efforts then, yes, this will drag out until another building season and we will lose all the revenues and all the other… We’ll run ferries and winter roads for another year. That’s the key piece. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 4, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 2012-2013, be read for the third time. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to thank all the Members for their comments. If I could just reaffirm the track that we are on, in terms of capital. In 2008-2009 we had a $211 million budget. In 2009-2010 it was $328 million. In 2010-2011 it was $455 million. In 2012-2013 it’s $260 million. This coming year it’s going to be $75 million. There’s a substantial drop. We know we have a $3 billion infrastructure deficit that’s looming and we have to keep working on it. There are a lot of critical infrastructure pieces and development projects that have to be done. For example, last year...

The number that was used is there was $7 million residual in that fund that we kept in accrued interest and such and we’re putting into the planning process is slated towards economic issues. This is talking about history that can be changed. The harsh reality for me was we hadn’t lent this money out. We were lending it to ourselves. We had $125 million in the bank that, according to how the federal government did their accounting, was considered a debt. So for most people if you think you have $125 million cash, they had given it to us through their Immigrant Investor Fund. It was cash in the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left I have Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance. To my right I have Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, the deputy secretary to the FMB.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There was a debate about where the Opportunities Fund would be accounted for, under our borrowing limit or not. That was an issue that was ongoing. At the same time we initiated the requests initially as a territory and then with all the other two territories and got the Minister of Finance to agree to a review of the territorial borrowing limits of all three territories. Our particular circumstances were such that the Opportunities Fund that we have, Yukon – and I don’t think Nunavut had it – was being perceived by the federal government in their opinion should have...

I do, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present the Department of Finance’s main estimates for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

For 2012-13 the department has identified a total operations budget of approximately $142.1 million, which is comprised of:

A $65.4 million contribution to the NWT Housing Corporation, of which the department has no direct authority over this contribution funding other than providing the corporation with its operation cash flow, and $76.7 million for departmental operations.

The $76.7 million for the department represents a 94 percent increase from the 2011-12 Main Estimates. This is...

Thank you. There are a couple of things and I’ll ask Mr. Kalgutkar if he wants to add further. Corporations can reach back three years when they do their filings for corporate income tax and make adjustments and do whatever is in their benefit in terms of how they file and where and what amounts and what’s in their filing. As Mr. Aumond indicated, we as well are just concluding the repayment of a large overpayment that we received a number of years ago that we paid back over three years. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the NWT is experiencing hot, dry conditions and the forests across most of the NWT are critically dry. The fire danger ratings in the North Slave, South Slave and Deh Cho regions are at high or extreme and the NWT is in the midst of an early fire season. We have had increased fire activity over the past week and are presently dealing with a number of problematic wildfires within these regions.

The long-term seasonal temperature outlook from Environment Canada for June, July and August continues to project above seasonal temperatures for most of the NWT. Precipitation is forecast to...