Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have built this project into our fiscal framework. We’ve built the $40 million into the current fiscal framework and we can manage our way through this. There is a four-year contract. The first three years are where the bulk of the work is done. Embankment construction is the key piece. The first year got off to a slower start than was anticipated just because of the logistics of bringing in many, many millions of dollars of brand new equipment and getting the manpower up and running, the systems working and everybody doing business. It’s accelerated only insofar as...

The issue of pressing and why we did what we did, I mention to the Members that when you’re in their chair and responsible for, as the government, dealing with the issue of cost of living, forest fires, unexpected expenses like this and very many other urgent fiscal balls you have in the air that, yes, things do become pressing, and they become pressing in the context that I just laid out, and they require a timely response.

I appreciate, once again, that Members don’t think we subscribe fully enough to the protocols that we’ve agreed to. I’m saying that we had touched the bases we needed to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015. This document provides for an increase of $48.928 million to the capital budget.

The most significant items in this supplementary estimates are:

$40 million for the Department of Transportation to respond to revised cash flows required to accommodate the accelerated construction schedule of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway Project;

$2.9 million for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, $2.6 million for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and $1.4...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The written correspondence we have from NTPC was September 25th. Oh, sorry. August, August 25th. Sorry.

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.

I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2014-2015. This document outlines an increase of $63.994 million in operations expenditures for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

The more significant items included in the supplementary estimates are:

$47.4 million for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources related to two special warrants that were approved to address costs of fire suppression during the extreme fire season this summer;

$20 million for the Department of Finance to mitigate the impact of extreme low water conditions on the Snare Hydro...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me is the deputy minister, Ernie Campbell; and Mr. Bill Mawdsley, director of forest fire operations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-15,” and “Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2014-2015”. Thank you.

Thank you. That’s part of the $200 million that the Premier referenced that we’re paying in subsidies, and if we’re going to do that for every homeowner and every business in the Northwest Territories, then I would suggest that even the hydro community folks would be there demanding that they have to pay heating fuel as well. I think it would truly beggar this government and would be very counterproductive if we just subsidized the cost of fuel. There would be no incentive for business to drop the prices.

As the world price goes down, they know that whatever they charge we will pay. We’re far...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last three years with Inuvik’s troubles with their gas wells taking on water and the issue of using propane, between the Power Corp and the government, we’ve put in about $8 million to make sure we’ve tried to cushion the blow of the loss of the gas. We’ve switched the Power Corp initially to diesel; we switched our buildings back to diesel to make sure we freed up much cheaper gas to the people of Inuvik. On top of that we have a lot of programs for conservation, energy efficiencies, appliances, insulation, windows, which reduce your energy requirements. But...