Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me at the witness table Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance and Mr. Olin Lovely, the director of Management Board Secretariat.

Yes, Madam Chair. The interim appropriation requests authority for appropriation of $404.121 million for operations expenditures in the 2012-13 fiscal year.

This interim budget provides the necessary resources for the government to operate in the first three months of the 2012-2013 fiscal year. As discussed with committees previously, the 2012-2013 Main Estimates, or full budget, will be presented during the May/June sitting of the Legislative Assembly.

I will explain the methodology of the interim appropriation development and clarify that the interim provides for only a portion of the full...

The cure for the broken heart the Member is referring to, of course, is to sign the Devolution Agreement, and the authorities and money will flow and he’ll feel much better.

In terms of his specific request on the Liquor Act, the Member is very well aware that the average timeline is about two years for amendments, but before we even get to that point we have to have the fundamental discussion about laws of general application and can we make laws of that nature in the Liquor Act. Can we tailor them region by region when people have broad rights that they have given to them under the Canadian...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m aware of the Member’s concerns and some of the folks in his constituency. The issue of the Liquor Act and changing it away from a law of general application to one of regional application is one that I am prepared to look at as Minister to see what’s possible. I’m prepared to sit down with the Member if he wants to have discussions or he wants to put his fingers to the keyboard and lay out the very specific question that he may be contemplating. We would, of course, give it our full attention.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There were operation requirements. The positions weren’t hidden from view. They were reflected in the org charts. The fact that they were funded from within has now been sorted where they moved money, as Mr. Aumond said, from their operational budget into salary dollars. But the fact is they’ve had some other recent changes of staff, so they’ve re-profiled and re-classified some of the positions to do different things and it’s a normal business of government. It’s being shown here. They’ve moved the dollars out of O and M so that it’s going to be funded and it will be...

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Transportation looks after and is responsible for the highway system in the Northwest Territories. He is responsible. This Cabinet is responsible for addressing the issues of the Members as they are raised in this House. Specifically, the highway issue and the highway inventory will be addressed by the Minister of Transportation as he comes forward with the business plan for the coming year. As we resolve and finalize and move forward with the borrowing limit issue, it will give us the capacity to address this particular circumstance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table three documents, entitled “Interim Appropriation 2012-2012; Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2011-2012; and Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2011-2012.”

The City of Yellowknife has indicated to us that they don’t need to borrow money from us, that they can get money at as cheap a rate as we can. They acknowledge that fundamentally this is a responsibility that falls within the purview of the City of Yellowknife. Should we get an increase to our borrowing limit, as the Premier has indicated, we have to maintain our fiscal discipline for the next couple years to get ourselves clear so that by year three and four we can invest money in key strategic infrastructure initiatives. If the City of Yellowknife at some point takes some further steps in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a fairly good idea of what we can do and what we should do and I’ve laid that out to the Member, we’ve laid it out to Mayor Van Tighem and the City of Yellowknife.

Fundamentally, this is a municipal issue. The condo corporation has to get itself organized. It’s a private corporation. I know there are issues there. The mayor has indicated that they can borrow money as cheaply as us, and as I’ve indicated, as well, from the start, if there are things we’ve overlooked or totally missed, of course we will be prepared to consider those. But this file has been live for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on February 9, 2012, I will move that Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Borrowing Authorization Act, be read for the first time. Thank you.