Michael Miltenberger

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.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct; there were sections of the line that floated to the surface once the ground melted. The line has been checked from one end to the other and they have identified all the areas and they have worked to ensure that the cable is properly buried. Given that is was a unique sort of process, it was something that wasn’t anticipated but has been rectified at the cost to the contractor. There is a plan that has been put into place over the summer to do that. Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The project started out in its initial conceptual stages with a range somewhere between 65 and I think it was 85 million dollars. As the estimating got finer and the numbers hardened up, it moved to the higher end of the scale. When we did certain things like double the size of the cable from 24 pair to 48 pair to give it a lot of capacity, those types of things added cost as well. But I’ll ask the deputy, Mr. Chair, with your agreement, if he wants to add more detail. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We anticipate that this would be a request for proposals, that there are, we believe, eminently qualified and capable northern businesses that would be very, very interested in a contract like this, and we would anticipate, and we would make sure it’s in the contract that, of course, northern pilots be checked out on these planes that are there. There are existing airline companies up here clearly that have the size and ability, could look and manage the hangar space or provide for that. So we anticipate that there is every reason to believe that there would be a...

I move we report progress.

---Carried