Michael Miltenberger

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...

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.