The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, Transportation and our officials track all expenditures and have the monthly reports, the daily reports and the annual auditing of all revenues and expenditures. Thank you.
I’ll assume that means that management is standing by the Department of Transportation. I was wondering if the Minister could provide me with some information in the sense of looking for schedules versus stages of construction. I was wondering if the Minister could provide me with a project status report on the Deh Cho Bridge. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we do have status reports that are compiled on a daily basis by the different companies that we have. We also do our own. We do it on a weekly and monthly basis. We certainly can provide a reconciliation of where the expenditures are versus the construction schedule. Mr. Speaker, we are a little over 80 percent, moving towards 85 percent of our expenditures, of our budget being spent, and we’re probably at the same level with our construction schedule. So roughly a little more than 80 percent of our budget is spent and a little more than 80 percent of our contract schedule is concluded. Thank you.
I’m not trying to suggest how something of this magnitude should be managed, but I’m wondering if the department did a cash flow of the original budget, original cost of the bridge, if that was cash flowed from the beginning to the end of the project was supposed to be intended to come to an end, I guess, so to speak. I’m wondering if the budget was turned into a cash flow during the construction stage. Thank you.
We are closely tracking all expenditures. We have a breakdown, we have cash flow charts, we have variances, we have spreadsheets that provide all the information that the Member has brought forward, we have a breakdown of the budget by various components, we provide year-to-year expenditures on each item and we forecast each expenditure to the completion of the project, so we do have all the information and we do track it very closely. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I consider the variance report to be part of project management, especially huge project management. I’m wondering if, since the Minister did refer to a variance report but saying verifying variance report is what I’m hearing, I’m wondering if the Minister could provide us a variance report, one variance report that compares a cash flow with expenditures so the House could determine where we’re at, like, if we’re on schedule with the construction, if we’re on schedule with the flow of money. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Some of this information is available publicly. Our financial audit is done on an annual basis. It’s reviewed by the Auditor General. The information is something we can certainly share. Mr. Speaker, we’ve asked for some committee time to talk about some of the details regarding schedules, regarding budgets and things of that nature. I believe we’ve managed to secure some time so we can have an opportunity to sit down and look at some of these things in depth, including the risk matrix and things of that nature that maybe will provide some comfort to the Members with further detail. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, last week the very big news that came out of Indian and Northern Affairs that the largest parcels of land in the Northwest Territories were up for grabs: 11 parcels in the Sahtu, a couple of parcels in the Mackenzie Delta and I think there’s a parcel up in the Beaufort Sea. This is historical, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of ITI, in light of these bids that are going up that have been an issue in a nine-year period, what is ITI doing to anticipate possibly a big boom in terms of oil and gas exploration and development?
Minister of ITI, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We, too, see it as very good news, the fact that 11 land parcels were put up for bid. But I also want to advise the Member that our government had no prior notification or input or advance notice that these bids were going forward and although we are aware of it now, we are preparing for the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline and, as we’ve said many times, the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline will be a basin-opening project for the Northwest Territories, and in due course you’ll see more money spent on exploration than spent on the pipeline itself. So we have a Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Office and we are getting ready for future development in the oil and gas sector. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think the federal government caught a lot of people off here in terms of announcing these bids here. The bids on these parcels, on one parcel had a minimum bid of $1 million, Mr. Speaker. Two of these parcels of land are right on the Sahtu land, surface and subsurface rights belong to the Sahtu people and we must get ready for it such as finalizing the Sahtu Land Use Plan and preparing other agreements, and also for training and employment. I want to ask the GNWT how do these work bids fit into the overall land use planning framework.
I’d just like to recognize the clock. I’ll allow the Member to conclude his questions and also the Minister to respond. Minister of ITI.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s no connection between these bids and the land use framework that we are developing as a government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to ask the Minister what are the implications of the devolution AIP for this development.
Thank you. I think the implications are quite significant. Our Premier has spoken to the Prime Minister’s office and a number of federal Ministers as well, so have several Ministers on this side. What we indicated is that with the signing of the devolution AIP, that we have to be involved in these kinds of decisions that affect lands and resources and we are asking that we develop transitional arrangements so that we are part and parcel of these decisions that will affect us. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. So with that, I’d just like to rise and take a short break. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Northwest Territories Economic Review and Outlook, January 2011. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 25, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 2011-2012, be read for the first time. Thank you.
Motion is in order. Bill 25, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 2011-2012, has had first reading.
---Carried
Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 26, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2010-2011, be read for the first time. Thank you.
Motion is in order. Bill 26, Supplementary Appropriation Act, (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2010-2011, has had first reading.
---Carried
Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 27, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2010-2011, be read for the first time. Thank you.
Motion is in order. Bill 27, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2010-2011, has had first reading.
---Carried
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 25, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 2011-2012, be read for the second time.
Mr. Speaker, this bill authorizes the Government of the Northwest Territories to make operations expenditures for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Thank you.
Motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Bill 25, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 2011-2012, has had second reading.
---Carried
Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 26, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2010-2011, 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 2010-2011 fiscal year. Thank you.
Motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Bill 26, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2010-2011, has had second reading.
---Carried
Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 27, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2010-2011, be read for the second time.
Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Bill 27, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2010-2011, has received second reading.
---Carried
Bills 25, 26 and 27 have received second reading.
Item 19, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 4-16(5), Executive Summary of the Report of the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project; Tabled Document 30-16(5), 2010 Review of Members’ Compensation and Benefits; Tabled Document 38-16(5), Supplementary Health Benefits – What We Heard; Tabled Document 62-16(5), Northwest Territories Water Stewardship Strategy; Tabled Document 75-16(5), Response to the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project on the Federal and Territorial Governments’ Interim Response to “Foundation for a Sustainable Northern Future”; Tabled Document 103-16(5), GNWT Contracts Over $5,000 Report, Year Ending March 31, 2010; Tabled Document 135-16(5), GNWT Response to CR 3-16(5) Report on the Review of the Child and Family Services Act; Bill 4, An Act to Amend the Social Assistance Act; Minister’s Statement 65-16(5), Devolution Agreement-in-Principle, Impact on Land Claims and Protection of Aboriginal Rights; and Minister’s Statement 88-16(5) Sessional Statement, with Mr. Bromley in the chair.
