Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 2018 fire season was well below average for the Northwest Territories. A total of 56 fires were reported, affecting 13,222 hectares. In comparison, there were 249 fires and just over 860,000 hectares burned in 2017. The 25-year average is 231 fires and about 686,000 hectares burned each fire season.

As a government, it is important for us to be able to provide assistance to other Canadian jurisdictions, as many of them have helped us during previous wildland fire seasons. The relatively inactive fire season allowed Northwest Territories personnel and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 26, Statistics Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I did state before one of the first things that I did to try to monitor this is to put the departments on notice, my colleagues on notice, that I will be monitoring this. I'm sure, as we gather the information, we'll have a fairly good indication of why some of the projects are late. Maybe the specifications haven't been done. It could be a number of different reasons. I can't sit here and start to speculate on what some of those reasons are.

I have made a commitment that we would monitor this a lot closer to make sure that the money that's been allocated...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in all fairness to some of the previous speakers that had some concerns with carry-overs, I think I may as well address that issue right now. The Members are correct. There is a significant amount of carry-overs. Last year, I believe it was a little over $100 million in carry-overs. It could be for different reasons. Projects could be in the planning stages; the money is appropriated for a particular project. It could be in the planning stages. Contracts could not be let; contracts could just be assigned. That could be some of the reasons for the carry-overs.

I...

Yes, it does. Sorry, I was cut off guard there. You said we were going to do a round and then have the Minister respond to all concerns at once, but yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am here to present the Government of the Northwest Territories’ Capital Estimates, 2019-2020.

The Capital Estimates, 2019-2020 totals $325 million, of which $94 million is being funded by the federal government. The Capital Estimates includes $199 million for Tangible Capital Assets, $74 million for Infrastructure Contributions, $50 million for Public Private Partnerships, and $2 million for Deferred Maintenance.

Consistent with prior years, the Capital Estimates, 2019-2020 do not include appropriations for housing infrastructure proposed by the NWT Housing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 27, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2018-2019, be read for the second time. Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of Northwest Territories for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 27, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2018-2019, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 28, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2018-2019, be read for the third time, and Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I did not confirm that about the large emitters. What I confirmed was that 75 percent would be rebated back to them, and the other 25 percent would be going to their investments into greenhouse gas emissions. You could look at it another way. With all the corporate tax that they are paying, they are funding a lot of the programs that we offer across the Northwest Territories. They do make a contribution to that as well.

To the Member's question, the draft action plan, we shared that with committee, Indigenous governments, and organizations for a four-week review commencing at the end of October...