Michael Miltenberger

There’s been a lot of work done in the life of this Assembly on where we are going as a Northwest Territories, what people see the future is and in terms of a vision and some of the general directions. What we’re also going to have the much harder discussion as we look at government, the revenues we have, the expenditures that are upon us, the unrelenting requests for program expansions and the other pressures we have on us to try to manage our resources to stay solvent and to not go into long-term debt. So the discussion is going to be what we have talked about as a Legislature, for example...

Thank you. I understand he has engaged in this type of review before. I can’t tell the Member exactly where, but that’s one of the reasons he was asked to do this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will refer that question to Minister Michael McLeod.

Those budget numbers are contained and we stay within the 3 percent cap that we set overall. Thank you.

Thank you. I’ll have to refer that question to Minister Michael McLeod, who has intimate detail of the location of every one of these bridges.

Thank you. I will commit to update and I will do that through the Social Programs committee, and I am happy to have any discussion with the Member that he thinks is necessary. But I will look at the results of the meeting and I will share that information with the Social Programs committee. As well, I’d be happy to have any kind of further discussion that the Member may require. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The initiative that is before us is one that is going to generate some significant savings. The payback is 4.7 years. The money that is saved will be put into a fund that will allow us to in fact, in addition to the money that may be voted by this Legislature, have a fund that will allow us to continue to do these type of retrofits that will see a number of benefits, a source of energy that’s cheaper, less greenhouse gasses, and funding reinvested to help look at similar type of retrofits across the North. We are moving across the North to deal with a whole host of...

This is a critical issue and I share the Member’s concern and the need to keep everybody fully apprised. We will do that. We’ll ensure that before this Legislature is dissolved in August that we have an update provided to the Regular Members through the Social Programs committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will refer the question to Minister Michael McLeod.

If the Member has specific concerns in the North about how we provide those services and if he’s suggesting, for example, that we change the specifications and require jets versus any kind of prop fixed-wing plane, that’s a discussion we have to look at. Everything has a cost, as well. We’re trying to manage our expenditures in this area and this is an area where the costs are constantly increasing, so we’d have to be very careful and clear. If the Member has some specifics that he thinks are worth review, I’d be happy to have that discussion with him. Thank you.