Michael Miltenberger

Clearly we’ve engaged fully in this process with the Regular Members and this Legislature has gathered around the table as Caucus and we will continue to do that through the life of this Assembly and we’ll be looking to sort out and agree on those particular issues that will be binding on us all.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We, I believe, commenced similar related discussions when we all gathered at Blachford. That issue was discussed and the recognition that the June session, 2011, probably will be the last substantive session of this government, of this Assembly and the recognition of the period that the Member talks about. Those discussions, I believe, have already been broached. Thank you.

I’d like to point out that even including the Deh Cho Bridge into our financial considerations, Moody’s came up and they reviewed our finances and they came back with an Aa1 rating, one of the best in the country. They recognize that, yes, we have taken on this challenge, but we have shown, over the number of years preceding, that we have been prepared to make the right decisions, sometimes often tough decisions, to make sure that we maintain control of our expenditures, that we recognize that we’re in an economic downturn, and that we have to manage our money very carefully. We’re going to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to point out that we, along with every other jurisdiction in the world, have been managing our way through the most turbulent economic times, by many estimations, since the Great Depression, and we’ve done it in a way that’s allowed us to maintain service levels to provide us a role of stability in our economy as the private sector suffered and struggled through the downturn. We are continuing to do that. We’ve just come through the two biggest capital years in our history. And, yes, there are challenges out there and there always will be challenges...

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I’ve waited until today to raise this point or order because I wanted to review yesterday’s Hansard. On Tuesday, May 11th, during his Member’s statement, Mr. Ramsay said, and I quote from page 5 of unedited Hansard of that day, “Minister Lee has been given her marching orders by Cabinet and she is being too arrogant and too ignorant to see that by pursuing this direction she is doing untold damage to her reputation as a people’s politician.” Mr. Speaker, I submit in the accusation of being arrogant and ignorant are clearly abusive and violate Rule 23(k)...

We do have significant third-party involvement in our finances. We present our consolidated accounts. We have our books audited by the Auditor General. We are going to have the bridge audited. We have the Members here that are vigilant and keen in terms of monitoring our expenditures, our budgets. They are fully involved in our budgeting process.

We’ve been up to date and on the mark for three years. We’ve managed our way through the most difficult economic times since the Great Depression. We’ve done that collectively because we’ve applied ourselves, we’ve paid close attention and we’ve made...

Mr. Speaker, as we do our fiscal planning and the overviews we provide regularly to Members, we factor in anticipated costs. We recognize, like we did last year and the year before, that there has been a downturn, to a certain extent, in our corporate income tax. We believe, and the numbers showed us, that there has been a stabilizing and a flattening out and in some cases an actual upturn in some of the different areas.

We, of course, have to watch very closely our expenditures. We have to look, at this late date, as I pointed out, it’s a time to consolidate. I think the Member said the same...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We spent a fair bit of time a number of months ago at Blachford Lodge talking about how we’re going to interact with each other, the importance of being respectful, to use proper language, to avoid the hurling of insults. I would assume and I would trust that whatever a Member hears on the street doesn’t necessarily feel or she necessarily feels obligated to repeat in this House without any kind of filter or editing to make sure that it fits the decorum of this institution that we all work in. The Member made a point of reiterating the very same allegations that he’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. April 1st, 2010, marked the start of a new fiscal year. The measures included in our 2010-2011 budget are now being implemented, including almost $1.3 billion of operating expenditures and over $200 million in planned capital investments. These measures will be used to deliver needed public services and infrastructure to NWT residents and will help support our economy as the recovery takes hold.

Recently released preliminary estimates of 2009 Gross Domestic Product confirmed that the NWT economy shrank last year. Although there are positive signs for 2010, including...

We’ve distributed the proposal far and wide. It’s on our website. We’re looking for feedback that people may wish to give us. If there are specific requests, then we’ll definitely entertain those. We’re encouraging people to send us e-mails, to write, to talk to your MLA, talk to your mayor, talk to your Association of Communities, whoever they would like to carry the message for them. We’re not planning a major dog and pony show across the North. We will look at responding to specific requests. The timeline is April 30th. We’re looking forward to getting some very valuable feedback.