Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me the deputy minister, Mr. Ernie Campbell; and Ms. Susan Craig, the director of finance and admin.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Two things: that the commitment has already been made as the claim process runs its course that we would be keeping committee and Members apprised of that.

In regards to the concern of the Member for Nahendeh, whatever comes out of that will negatively impact the next budget. Clearly, we’re going to agree to this budget. We’re going to go ahead with that and the incoming Assembly will pick up all the pieces for everything, look at all the challenges. But this project and whatever comes out of that claims process will not be tacked on to the capital plan where all of a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Memorandum of Agreement Between the GNWT and the Government of Nunavut on the Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Acts.”

Some communities’ thinking and capacity is well along, like Inuvik. I know the community of Deline have their thinking very clear about what they see going forward with their microwave connection and wanting to become the sole provider for the community. Every independent service provider, every ISP will have the capacity to make the case. This is a business enterprise that, yes, communities may choose to pursue themselves or they would support somebody coming in that has the skills that’s prepared to wire or put in the fibre optic where it’s necessary and hook up the town for the full service...

Mr. Speaker, what is permanent will depend on the circumstances of the particular area. It has to be appropriate, depending on what kind of conservation designation there is outside of the protected area designation. But it does include all the areas on the map.

The Member stated, for example, 1999 Protected Areas Strategy. All the land that’s on that map that is designated to be protected is all the land that is projected to have any kind of conservation designation far into the future. There’s no new land on there. There’s land that’s been identified now since 1999. Some of it is yet to be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Every community will have a point of presence established from the fibre optic link. Those in Deline will be covered off by microwave towers. The final mile piece becomes a business opportunity for the community or for some business that wants to go in there, it could be NorthwestTel. Deline, I know, has very strong leanings in decision to trying to manage all those and run all the telecommunications and IT requirements in the community for everybody, so that piece is the step that now happens, one step for the presence there and the line goes live in the second quarter...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can give the Member a number for all the land that is current and proposed, including Thaidene Nene and areas that have been worked on since 1999, keeping in mind that the proposed areas in all probability will end up shrinking as the final footprint is determined, but that percentage is 14 percent of the land mass. Thank you.

Forecasters are already looking at large-scale global weather models and into forecasts for next year. Forecasters are predicting an El Nino winter, warm with limited precipitation which, depending on the actual outcome, may affect our water levels for next season. It seems that the drought through the NWT will continue.

As such, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, or ENR, will continue to be proactive and ready itself for the next fire season. A debrief of this year’s lesson learned will take place in the fall and public meetings will take place over the winter.

The rollout of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Russ Neudorf, deputy minister of Transportation; Paul Guy, deputy minister of Public Works and Services; and Sandy Kalgutkar, deputy secretary to the FMB. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to update Members on our fiscal situation and the challenges that Members of the next Assembly will be facing.

As the 2014-2015 interim Public Accounts that I will table later this session will show, we have achieved our fourth consecutive surplus last year, totalling $120 million. Our departments were diligent in keeping expenditures within budgeted levels. However, this is not enough. The public accounts will also show that our net debt has increased $37 million. This means we continue to rely on short-term debt to pay for our capital expenditures...