Michael Miltenberger

No, Mr. Chairman.

Yes Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories Power Corporation has been undergoing rapid and significant transition over the past three months. This transition is required to maintain the confidence of its customers and sole shareholder, the GNWT.

While NTPC has delivered power to the customers of the NWT for many years, pressure with respect to increasing rates and sliding reliability demanded significant changes. While many changes have already been implemented, others will take further time to complete. There are some significant challenges ahead for NTPC; namely, a general rate application, the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance, and Mr. Dave Heffernan, the chief information officer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s comments. We, of course, note his concerns. We all recognize that this capital plan was fairly well advanced by the time this Assembly took its place and started doing business. We fully anticipate having a fulsome discussion with all the Members, including Mr. Yakeleya, as we develop the capital plan for the coming year, recognizing, as he has pointed out a number of times, that there are fiscal limitations, but we will make note of that and expect to have that discussion in the coming fall. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For his first appearance at the witness table as deputy minister I have Ernie Campbell.

I propose to table the following document, entitled “Waste Reduction and Recovery Program 2010-2011 Annual Report.” Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The debt that is held by the Power Corporation that is on our books is what is called self-liquidating. They generate revenues and pay it down. While it’s on our balance sheet and goes against our borrowing limit, they are generating the revenue to pay down the debt.

To the Member’s point, there have been discussions and to this point the federal government is not willing to remove or separately treat the Power Corporation or the Housing Corporation or even the bridge, which are in similar circumstances, of having revenue that would pay down the debt that is on our books...

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, it would be nice to be able to announce that we are starting the 17th Legislative Assembly with a booming economy and enough fiscal resources to make all the strategic investments we need to further strengthen the economy.

Such is not the case. We have recently weathered one recessionary storm and another one is looming. While our economy is showing some signs of recovery, stimulus spending has left us with limited funds for new programs and services. As we approach the federally imposed borrowing limit, we have little room left to adjust for revenue or expenditure...

As I’ve indicated in my update before this House today, there’s been extensive work on the whole issue of the borrowing limit, redefining borrowing. As the federal government has indicated, they want to now include other instruments under the borrowing limit that weren’t currently there. There will be offset provided for that.

As I indicated in my statement, the big issue for us is going to be the negotiations and discussions with Finance Canada, Minister Flaherty, about the issue of adequacy, about what we need as a mature, well-run, fiscally responsible jurisdiction to be able to make the...