Michael Miltenberger

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 are not that prescient that we can foretell what the exchange rate will be by next year, which is why we’re going to set up this facility to help us try to hedge and hopefully pick appropriately as we’re hedging what exactly it is we’re going hedge and how much. So I appreciate the Member’s concern. We can tell you what we’ve spent to date with the actual cost of what we came forward with, the money we saved by advancing the project last year to the money that it cost us with the exchange rate drop. All combined, that money has been paid. We can tell you to the penny...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This money in question is money that was provided to us as an inducement to help encourage and make lease renewal more of a possibility, so the money is sitting there in an account as an inducement given to us and we are just now seeking approval to put that money to use to do different improvements. Once again, Madam Chair, I’d ask if the deputy minister wanted to add anything further.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me Deputy Minister Mike Aumond and deputy secretary to the FMB Sandy Kalgutkar.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m here to present Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2015-2016. This document provides for an increase of $2.1 million to the capital budget.

The most significant items are:

$1.5 million to provide the Department of Public Works and Services a capital appropriation to renovate office space in the YK Centre. This amount is fully offset by a lease inducement provided by the landlord; and

$400,000 for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to provide funding for the increased costs for the new air tractor fleet due to the current...

Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following four documents, entitled “Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016;” “Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2015-2016;” a letter dated March 13, 2014, to the chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations regarding committee recommendations on Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act; and a letter dated September 5, 2014, to the chair, Standing Committee on Government Operations, regarding committee recommendations on Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act.

Thank you. Yes.