AANDC has agreed, as well, to change the project time frame from perpetuity to 100 years and to investigate and report on long-term funding options. The acceptance of the AANDC Minister for the recommendations in the MVEIRB report confirm the public wishes and they signified a major change from the proposed remediation plan for Giant. That acceptance was due in no small part to the work of Kevin O’Reilly.

One Yellowknifer has commented, “Kevin really deserves widespread and heartfelt recognition for achieving the deal on Giant. It wouldn’t have happened without his initiative and tireless work...

Okay. I had to think about that. We’ve passed the ’15-16 infrastructure budget. So I guess it’s just anybody looking at it from the outside would have a difficult time following these numbers. I guess it would help, I don’t know if it’s allowed, but I guess it would certainly help if that explanation was included in the text that we have on this page. It would certainly make it easier to understand.

My other question has to do with the transfer, and there are a couple of them in this budget, the transfer of federal buildings to us from devolution and we’re accounting for these. I’d like to know...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions here. The first one has to do with the funding for the construction of a geological collection storage facility. I see we’re being asked to approve $500,000. I don’t have any problem with this project, but I recall from our discussion of the operations expenditures that under the Executive there is a negative amount of $4.206 million for the same thing to re-profile expenditures for the construction of a geological collection storage facility. So these two numbers don’t jibe and I’d like to know where the extra $3.7 million is going to be if...

Thank you, Minister, for that. Maybe the Minister doesn’t see it this way, but I get the sense that the contractor is running us and that the contractor is telling us I need to change my schedule and it’s going to cost you an extra whatever, $20,000 or $30,000, but it doesn’t seem as though the government is in control of, not the contract per se, but the way the contract is being managed. I suspect that the government would disagree with me, but I am saying this is the perception that I get, this is the feeling that I get. We are bending over backwards to do what the contractor wants us to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to say at the outset – and I’m speaking of the Inuvik to Tuk Highway Project – that I support this project but I have serious concerns about the ask that we’re being asked to consider here in this budget. That’s the $40 million change in cash flow to accommodate the new construction schedule and timetable that has been put before us.

I expressed my concerns the other day. Our cash position is going to require us to do some borrowing that’s going to add to our expenses. It seems to me that this is being done with little regard for our fiscal strategy and our fiscal...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We wish to continue with Tabled Document 154-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-15, and, time permitting, Tabled Document 115-17(5), NWT Capital Estimates, Department of Transportation and, if we finish that, then Bill 33. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s hard to be short when I get an answer that doesn’t reference my question. The Premier says that all the schools are over-funded. Our legislation says our PTR is 16 to 1. I want to say that the only schools which are meeting that 16 to 1 PTR are in Yellowknife. I would like to know whether or not the Premier intends to enforce or reduce dollars so that we are 16 to 1. Is he going to enforce a ratio of 16 to 1 in every school across the territory? We now have some that are funded at less than 5 to 1. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Three times in the 16th Assembly I spoke in this House for the need for the NWT to have an impartial arbiter, an ombudsman, to assist our residents with a dispute or a disagreement so they can avoid having to go to court to settle it.

The NWT is one of only three jurisdictions in Canada without one. This year, after much work by committee and staff, the Standing Committee on Government Operations on June 5th released a report which outlines the pros and cons of establishing an ombudsman office in the NWT. Such an office would act as an independent, impartial office with...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask a question with regards to the funding for start-up costs for implementation of Junior Kindergarten, $375,000. I know that JK was a little bit delayed in terms of getting going in some places, and I know that some of the necessary construction projects to get JK where it needed to be were a little bit behind. I would like to know from the Minister whether these construction projects – I think they were about $30,000 each maybe, give or take – have been completed. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, to our cash position, where does this borrowing cost of $12,000 to $15,000 put us in terms of our Borrowing Authorization Act and our limit there? Thank you.