Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I ask the forbearance and patience of the Member. When I come forward with this statement before the House, I will lay all that information out, as well as other areas that the refocusing committee has been working on, like the program review.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week a number of concerns and questions were raised by Members about the pricing of fuel in the Northwest Territories and the degree of competition in the Yellowknife retail fuel market.

The first step in assessing a situation should be to review the available information. The Department of Finance has compiled information on gasoline and diesel fuel prices in Yellowknife and other major cities in Canada from its own database and from outside sources. Unfortunately, these numbers are not available for heating oil.

The department conducts quarterly price surveys of...

In the next few weeks there will be a proposal brought forward for review. It is being worked on right now in Finance. We are very serious about this. There are clearly things we have to consider about such a fund, and we have to be prepared not only to establish it but to look at how we want to have some initial seed capital put in it at a time when we are struggling to make ends meet, as it were. But within the next few weeks there will be a document brought forward from Cabinet to committee so we can talk about the type of fund to set up, whether it should be in legislation and what the...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 20, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2008–2009, be read for the third time.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 20, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2008–2009, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, the work we’re doing will be brought forward, as I have committed to in the House, through the business planning process and further into the budget process, where there will be time for review and discussion. We have agreed to come forward and give the public the results of the round table and all the feedback we have received. That document is being worked on as we speak.

We are going to pull together a considered paper that’s going to be shared with the Regular Members, having heard very clearly once again in the House the need to communicate and consult before significant decisions are made. That work is underway, and we will be moving forward on that in the next number of weeks.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of a heritage fund has been now around the Legislature since at least the 15th Assembly. We’ve raised this issue. I raised it at the round table. It was raised in my fiscal overview of the government. Work is underway to come forward with a discussion paper to lay out some of the options for a heritage fund that would be, I would suggest, set up by statute, by legislation. There are some very strong models to look at. We have the Norway model. We have the Alaska model. We looked at what Alberta has done. Pick the best and come forward with a discussion paper.

C...

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 20, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2008–2009, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2008–2009 fiscal year.

Mr. Speaker, we’re going to be timing the work we are doing. There are people working on it right now. We know the business planning is going to start in the middle of November. We would like to have as much of the information as we can have pulled together at that point to talk about what’s being proposed for 2009–2010. If I can refresh everybody’s memory, we are looking at year 2 of reductions, about $28 million or so.

As well, we are tasked and targeted with finding $10 million in new revenues. We will come forward with that work clearly laid out for the ’09–10 budget and the business plan...