Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That cap has been removed.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following three documents, entitled “Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2014-2015;” “Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) No. 3, 2014-2015;” and “Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016.” Thank you.

I would be happy to concur with the Member that he is a fountain of good ideas. We are 270 days left until the next election. We have our to-do lists, work lists that are fully subscribed to. We are working to implement all those plus some others that have been added on over the course of the last year or so.

The Member raises a very legitimate, good issue. The issue of putting a fee, a recovery fee on each barrel is there. It’s a question of the resources and the time. We have an Environment Fund that is being used and managed carefully to do all the things that currently are in place. To...

Thousands, Mr. Speaker, and they would be invariably in areas where there were old abandoned sites either for exploration or some type of small mining venture from the days of yore, but a lot of it tied to exploration sites.

That program is handled through the Power Corporation, and they’ve been taking care of the communications. If there are specific concerns from the Member, then I would be happy to talk to them about what may be needed to be done extra to ensure that those concerns could be addressed.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It’s all accounted through the variance process. There’s ability to move money between activities in a department, so the money is always all accounted for at year-end. Some cases, like in capital, will have carry-overs. I will ask the deputy if he wants to add anything further on that particular issue. Thank you.

In follow up on our discussion in the Committee of the Whole yesterday, yes.

The majority of caribou herds are under pressure not only in the Northwest Territories but we’ve seen that to the east, as well, with the George River and Leaf River herds and some of the herds farther to the west. The one herd that has been doing well, the Porcupine, they have the benefit of, I think, a very, very good management plan that took about seven years to agree to. They think the Bluenose-East plan is going to hopefully hit that standard as well. The Bathurst Management Plan is still somewhere in the future. Unfortunately, the complex area, unsettled claims combined with some...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. The impact on the borrowing limit at the time was considered along with what would be the longer term cost if we shut the project down and didn’t start it up again or try to start it up later in the season or lose half of a building season. It was determined that it would make far more sense for us to advance the money, keep the project going, keep the 400 people or 500 people employed, and have that benefit up in the Beaufort-Delta plus keep the project on target and on time.

At the time as well, that predated what we knew later to be the worst fire season in our...

Thank you. I appreciate the Member’s suggestion and I’ll have a discussion with the department about how that would fit in. We’re only a couple of months away from fire season. It might be something that takes a little more time than that. It might get flagged for a transition issue with the government, but we’ll take a look at the Member’s suggestion and his comments will have a great bearing on the outcome. Thank you.