Michael Miltenberger

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, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following three documents, entitled “Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 7, 2010-2011;” “Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures, No. 4, 2010-2011;” and “Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2012-2013.”

As well, I wish to table the following document, entitled “A Review of Cost Pressures Facing the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, March 2012.”

I have to ask the Member for clarification. Is he asking in terms of what’s left of the money or in terms of what type of work we do in relation to the land?

It is in the million dollar-plus range. We’re going to survey the herds. We do some of the work on an ongoing basis and then we do a major amount of work every X number of years, as we’re doing this year, just to bring all that information together and to double check the decisions that we made in terms of, in this case, a lot of the hunting restrictions and herd health. The number is in the million dollar-plus range. I will commit to get the Member the number to the dollar; to the nickel if you’d like. I would be happy to share. I think he already has the notes we have from the 2011-2015...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The first two items are tied to the supps that have come through for firefighting. The biomass one is one of the sunsets resulting out of the lapsed strategic initiatives money that was there previously.

I do, Mr. Chair.

We do have a Sustainable Development Policy. Work is underway for the Land Use Sustainability Framework which will incorporate that sustainability policy into a broader land use framework. We do try to strike the balance across the North in terms of land that is open for development and land that has been put aside for conservation and protection purposes. That figure ranges anywhere from 45 to 50 percent. It has to be unencumbered, 50 to 60 percent. Thank you.