Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The final accounting is not done. We do have now a final number and we’ve provided the preliminary base numbers to committee, but there will be a requirement to come back for an additional $3.9 million in the winter session.

The annual comprehensive review and debriefing of the fire season that we’ve just finished is being done. We anticipate early in the new year being able to share that in detail with committee and the Legislature. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will wait and respond to the Member’s questions as best we can when she raises them when we get to detail. Thank you.

The current contract was a negotiated contract, and I’d ask the Minister about the future years and what the intent of the department would be.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s concern. As the Member is going to be tracking and worrying about the upcoming snowfall and winter and then the coming summer, so too are all of us as we look at the level of drought and what kind of water we can expect this coming spring and summer and hope for the water levels to go up to have a wetter season in the southern part of the territory. There’s little in the short-term we can do to mitigate that, but clearly, as we look longer term at climate change, global warming, we have to continue to strive to do our part to look at...

As I indicated, this money is new money. It’s not money coming out of the various school boards. Should the money not be approved, then Education, Culture and Employment would be absorbing that cost from their existing budget.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance; and Mr. Olin Lovely, director of the Management Board Secretariat. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have captured all the numbers that we think are going to be there between now and the end of March. But as I indicated earlier, in order to err on the side of caution and to make sure that we have enough room to respond and to keep the government operational, we’re going to come forward with a request, through legislation, to increase that amount from $275 million to $300 million. Thank you.

We, of course, whenever possible, share as fully as we can as a matter of practice with internal audits. There is sometimes highly sensitive, sometimes personnel information, sometimes information that may form the basis for a criminal investigation, so I am unable to commit to the request by the Member. Thank you.

I would encourage the Member to think back that we manage a $1.8 billion budget. We have supps on a regular basis and nearly 100 percent of the time, over 99 percent of the time the system works. We have an issue with this supplementary appropriation, which is a relatively small amount, as the Member said, that didn’t follow all the steps in the process, and we acknowledge that. There’s no plan to change the process because it’s a good process. There is a requirement and need to have the checks and balances and accountability to this Legislature and it’s why we’re here today laying this out...

In the seven audit projects concluded, the audit reports completed in 2013-14 made 46 recommendations. Twenty-two of the 46 audit recommendations have been implemented to date. Thank you.