Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate the Member’s support. Just to reassure the Member, speaking to the borrowing limit and any additional strategic infrastructure investments, we will be coming back to this House with borrowing limit information in the plan. Clearly we have an obligation as government to make sure that whatever strategic investments are made are spread across the North and that this hopeful tide of good fortune will raise all boats, not just in one particular area. That’s a commitment of the government. Once again, I will ask the Minister of Transportation if he wishes to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member raises an issue and a source of possible assistance numbering in the thousands. In fact, there have been attempts in the past to come up with ways to engage employees to look at incentives for doing that. That is again being looked at. As well, HR is also looking at whistle-blower legislation.

I agree with the Member that the intent here would be to encourage and reward people for showing initiative and coming forward with good ideas and rewarding people that do that. That is something that is being reconsidered as it has been in the past, but as well there is...

Thank you, Madam Chair. In regard to the process with the borrowing limit, once the number is clear, we will be coming forward with a suggested plan of action that will see us laying out over the next four years the steps we have to take to be able to access and put to use strategically the borrowing limit, some of the money in the borrowing limit. Keeping in mind one of the big things holding us back right now is we have to be able to provide half of the funding for capital out of our own savings coming from our operations. Right now we don’t have those savings accrued and we will have to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a case where we have a situation of a critical service, a critical part of the environment where there is overlapping jurisdictions. We have the political and moral authority. The federal government has the legal authority as it pertains to the water. We take all the steps necessary to make sure that the municipalities and communities have safe drinking water, but in terms of protecting the ecosystems, the aquatic ecosystems, the groundwater and the watersheds in the Mackenzie River Basin, we have a role to play but the legal responsibility lies with the federal...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the Member’s comments. This project clearly is at the early stages and we are doing frontend work so that we can, in fact, find out whether we do have a project. We need to have an environmental assessment, as has been pointed out, in order to approach the federal government about putting their money into work at work first.

In defence of the Inuvik school, I believe that project came in a year early and on budget. The Taltson project is not done yet. There is going to be value for money on that end. We are going to have a bridge that is going to last us...

If we go back to 1967 when the planes first came north with the Commissioner, this town, this city – it was a town then I think with barely 4,000 people – most communities had the most rudimentary of services. Minimal roads, minimal services from health, education, social services, economic development; they were almost non-existent. We have invested over the years in trying to build up the North. We made a decision as a territory that we were going to support the kind of community structure that we do have that recognizes the value of communities in place where they are as they have been for...

I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2011-2012. This document outlines an increase of $400,000 for operations expenditures and an increase of $2.631 million for capital investment expenditures in the 2011-2012 fiscal year. The total supplementary request is $3.031 million.

There are four items in the supplementary estimates:

$2.5 million for the Department of Transportation to start environmental assessment work on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway project.

$427,000 for the Department of Transportation for the costs associated with moving NAV Canada...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We set up a program review office in the 16th Assembly to start looking at value for money and efficiencies, economies, looking at how we do business. We also, through our annual business planning process and budget process, look at what the costs to government are and what our fiscal capacity is, and our ability to move forward and where changes need to be. Those are the two areas where we have work on a regular basis that allows us to examine how we do business with operations, both infrastructure and O and M.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m well familiar with the taste of humble pie and crow if it will aid the debate. I’ll happily withdraw the comments that Mr. Bromley would not support a road out of Yellowknife if there was not one.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This particular program is application based, and we just finally got word from the federal government that we were successful in our application for this fourth component. Thank you.