Michael Miltenberger

One of the benefits to Yellowknife is they have potentially a full complement of liquor inspectors. I know that in the smaller communities it is much more problematic finding qualified liquor inspectors. Thank you.

Yes, Madam Chair. The intent is to do a similar territorial-wide debriefing on the performance and issues and things that need to be identified to follow up on. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, or ENR, Strategic Plan for 2015-2020. This strategic plan, which will be tabled later today, establishes a vision, mission, values, goals and objectives for the department. The strategic plan incorporates the new responsibilities of ENR post- Devolution.

The 2015-2020 ENR Strategic Plan aligns with government policies, including the ENR Establishment Policy, and the GNWT Sustainable Development Policy and the Land Use and Sustainability Framework.

The development of the ENR Strategic Plan was a...

Thirty-two million dollars. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We are at work looking at expanding the base budget for fire suppression to make it more reflective of some of the costs. One of the challenges we face with every other jurisdiction is we are now quite routinely, at least the last few years and if you look around the world, like in North and South Carolina, for example, extreme weather events that are coming in. We’ve had some discussions, as a Finance department, about how do we best capture the pressures from extreme weather events that aren’t tied to the routine business that supplementary appropriations are designed...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We did provide some extra information on a go-forward basis. If the request is a comprehensive, very detailed package that will capture all our costs in terms of material, fire crews, aircraft, we can commit to provide that. We can work through the committee before the next fire season, the format, to make sure it captures the needs of committee in terms of accountability and such. We can build that in so it’s not at the level where it is currently. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We as well hope that the Member is never driven to having to unwillingly watch the proceedings on TV to check up on this thing and we intend to honour the commitment that’s laid out here. Thank you.

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 70, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2016-2017, be read for the second time.

This bill authorizes the Government of the Northwest Territories to make infrastructure expenditures for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member articulately laid out her concern on a previous item similar to this one and we had a good discussion. We agree that we need to try to count better. It’s very difficult to anticipate things like low water, the duration and such, but we are looking at how we can better account for the money and the increasing number of extreme weather expenses that we are being obliged to deal with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following three documents, entitled “Environment and Natural Resources Strategic Plan 2015-2020,” “Conference of Management Authorities 2014-2015 Annual Report” and “Northwest Territories Species at Risk Committee Annual Report 2014-2015.” Thank you.