Robert C. McLeod

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have with me today Mr. David Stewart, who is the deputy minister of the Department of Finance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2018-2019. This document provides for an increase of $1.1 million to the operations budget. These supplementary estimates include:

$200,000 for funding for the NWT Arts Council;

$300,000 to establish two new government service officer positions in Jean Marie River and Sambaa K'e; and

$578,000 to establish two new land specialist positions to address equity lease issues over the next three years.

That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 10, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2017-2018, be read for the second time. Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2017-2018 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 10, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2017-2018, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 10, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2017-2018, be read for the third time. Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Absolutely. On the Department of Finance human resources website, we have a portal there for summer students to put in applications. I am not sure what the status of the number of applications is right now. I will gather that information and I will flip it to the Member. We are always looking. Summer students who are coming back from school know that there are opportunities. They know where they need to apply. Again, I will check on the status of the number of applications we may have received and share the information with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and recommendation noted.

When I quoted the numbers before, the 349, I have asked a couple times now, and I will follow up on it today on the number of summer students that agencies that we fund also hire. We have 23, I think, local housing authorities, maybe 24 now. I am sure they bring on summer students, as well. If you average out two or three per LHO, that would increase the number.

We have the community governments whom we fund that bring on summer students. They are not included in the 349. I would think that number would be a lot higher. I have been trying to gather that information for a while now. Once I do, I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the supplementary appropriation will add two new positions in addition to the three that were identified in the main budget document. I believe, in the main budget document, the three that were identified were actually going to go to Fort Smith, but after having some discussions with committee, we determined that we will add two new positions, recognizing that there are a number of leases that need to be taken care of. That would have brought the total to five, and we decided that two would go in Fort Smith, one would go in Inuvik, one in Fort Simpson, and one...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Premier and the Minister responsible for the Status of Women will be absent from the House today to attend a funeral in Norman Wells. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.