Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Aumond left off where one of the questions that I wanted to go with regard to the $20 million that we’re borrowing. I heard him say that we will need $15 million in this budget year and then $5 million is expected after March 31, 2015. If the question’s been asked and I missed it, I’m sorry. But why are we being asked to approve $20 million in the 2014-15 budget year, which ends March 31, 2015, when $5 million of that is going to be used in the 2015-16 budget year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had two minutes left. I just wanted to say that I appreciate the government’s intent, but somebody dropped the ball and I appreciate that the Minister has suggested that yes, maybe they did. I do appreciate also that there are times when decisions need to be made quickly, but I still believe that there is still an opportunity, even when a decision is made quickly, to let Regular Members know what that decision has been.

As to his question about my questions, yes, I will raise them later on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to consider Tabled Document 155-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2014-2015; and, time permitting, Tabled Document 154-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015; and, time permitting, Tabled Document 115-17(5), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2015-2016, with the Department of Transportation. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. Still not that clear, but I’ll give up on that one. I think it’s a matter of language.

So, I’d like to know, first of all – not first, this is my third question, I’d like to know from the Minister, when issues come before the House or they come before a committee, Members very often want to have some input into the issue, and very often it has to do with an issue where the Minister and/or his delegate will have to rule on a decision.

So, I’d like to know if the Minister, as regulator, or basically him as a regulator, if he can accept input from Regular Members on an...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 155-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2014-2015, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 155-17(5) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. With devolution came new responsibilities, and one of those new responsibilities was for oil and gas. We’ve been talking a lot about it in the last little while and I’d like to ask some questions of the Minister of ITI around his job as the regulator.

We’ve inherited that job from the federal government with devolution. I’ve found when dealing with the environmental assessment at Giant Mine, which the Minister responsible was the Minister of ENR, that they had set up a system within...

Thanks for the explanation, but I’m sorry, that’s not good enough. We have a policy which says that if money has not been appropriated, we can’t spend it. The government had to go and approve two special warrants in order to get the funding to fight the fires this summer and special warrants have very specific criteria, but they had to do a special warrant because we had no legislative sitting where we could approve the funding for fire suppression. Yet in this case, albeit it’s a relatively small amount of money, we have said oh, that’s fine, go ahead, do the renovations to Junior...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to continue consideration of Tabled Document 115-17(5), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2015-2016, with the Department of Environment and the Legislative Assembly and, time permitting, Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015, Tabled Document 154-17(5); and, time permitting, Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No.24, 2014-2015, Tabled Document 155-17(5). Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t often get a chance to recognize my one hardworking staff, my constituency assistant, Ms. Amanda Mallon, and it’s a really special day for her. Not quite as special as Mrs. Groenewegen assistant’s day, but happy birthday, Amanda.

---Applause