Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Madam Chair. There were fairly broad conditions, but it mainly had to be tied to economic development activities. Thank you.

Thank you. The Member is correct. At the benefit of being able to borrow money at a very low rate now, we no longer have the Opportunities Fund, we no longer have that benefit.

Yes, Madam Chair.

We made one loan of any significant size and that was to Discovery. That interest rate was part of a broader package of negotiations that included the movement of headquarters positions and those types of things. The interest rate was in the range of about 10 percent.

Yes, Madam Chair.

This line is tied to the winding down of the Opportunities Fund. Thank you.

At this juncture it’s over the next four years.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The agreement we currently have is to 2018-19. It’s tied to a number of escalators. They are adjusted as you move forward, things like provincial and territorial expenditures, tax efforts. For example, if there’s a significant downturn in all the provinces and territories and they all cut back spending, there is going to be a consequential negative impact on our arrangement, as well, because one of the escalators in there is tied to that factor in the provinces. Thank you.

When the federal government put $150 million on the table towards the Tuk-Inuvik highway, we indicated to them that we were in no position, with their existing financial arrangements and borrowing limit, to even be able to contemplate partaking in that project in addition to all the other cost pressures we had. Was it a factor in the discussion when we talked about the borrowing limit? Absolutely. We’ve laid out all the conditions, all the checks and balances that have since arisen and been committed to in this House through myself, through the Minister of ITI, through the Premier, but yes...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will quickly give a response. The Member for Frame Lake indicated that the government gets to spend what they want and MLAs are told we have no money to spend and, I would, just for the record, make it clear that we spend what the Legislature votes us to spend. It is a collective budget of this body here, this august body that we are now before.

The Member also commented that a major concern is that we don’t have a lot of new money to spend. As you look around at the landscape around us, pick a province or another country where there’s layoffs, freezes, rollbacks...