Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Speaker, everything we do in this Assembly, and I'm talking all 19 of us, is I think targeted towards the Mandate of the 18th Assembly, and many of the things in the mandate is to create employment, and it's a very large mandate so we don't miss too many parts of the mandate when we do our spending across the Northwest Territories. So the answer is yes, we do target the spending towards the Mandate of the 18th Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, we'll start the work and gather a lot of that information and I think it would be valuable information. I mean, we will share it with the Members obviously, and then once we get all the work done we will table it.

Mr. Speaker, I am getting weekly updates from the department. I mean, I've been in the portfolio for 36 days, four hours and 22 minutes. Not realizing what a huge department ENR is and how much it covers. So some of the information, as I get more educated on it, I'll be in a better position to respond to the Member's question.

Well, Mr. Speaker, the contracts, I'm sure, are awarded to people that provide a skill set and some value to the workings of the government. I'm not sure that it's fair to any individual if we put on a limit as to how many contracts they can get or what the amount is, but I have committed to the Member that I will review that. Again, I just need to stress that we -- obviously these folks that do get sole-source contracts, provide a service and a skill set that would provide some value for the GNWT.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Capital Estimates, 2017-2018, Government of the Northwest Territories." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

No.

Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member may have no idea of where he is going, but I know exactly where I am going. I am going to try and put this government, with the assistance of this Assembly, in a position where we're able to make further investments into our mandate in the remaining years of our Assembly.

As to specific projects as to where this money is going, we have a number of corridor projects that we have identified as some priorities of this government, but those are not all. The money that we're working with here is not just for capital, but it's also for O and M, to put us in a better...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is the latest version of the "Contracts Over $5,000," I believe is the document the Member is referring to, will be tabled during this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, $150 million was the original target. As Members recall, we, I think, achieved $66 million of it last year. We are currently in the business planning process for the upcoming 2017-2018 O and M budget and we are having discussions with the Members. Once we have those discussions and we get into our budget session in February/March, we'll make further decisions as to where any future monies are going to be invested.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to update the Members and residents on our fiscal situation. The passage of the first budget of the 18th Legislative Assembly in June, just four short months ago, was the start of our commitment to three objectives in our fiscal strategy. First, we need to ensure we demonstrate discipline in our spending so that our expenditure growth is aligned with revenue growth. Currently, this is particularly challenging as most of our revenues are based on federal transfers that are expected to have little growth in the medium term.

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