Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Thank you, Mr. Elkin and Ms. DeLancey. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.
Does committee agree that we’ve concluded the Department of Health and Social Services?
Agreed.
Thank you. If we could turn to page 9, we’ll deal with the Legislative Assembly budget next. Is everyone agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms if he could please escort the witnesses and the Speaker to the table.
Welcome, Mr. Speaker. For the record, could you please acknowledge your witnesses today.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right I have Mr. Darren Ouellette, director of corporate services. To my other left I have Mr. Tim Mercer, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly.
Thank you, Speaker Jacobson. If I could direct Members’ attention, then, to… We’ll defer page 9 and we will go to page 10, Office of the Clerk, infrastructure investments, $200,000. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you. I see this item on here and I’m just wondering if we have some other capital expenditures. I know we’ve talked, the Board of Management, about doing some upgrades to the building. Have we completed all those upgrades for access? I know we’ve had people with disabilities come through, CNIB come through and stuff like that. Are there any other building upgrades that we’re looking at doing in this upcoming year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Ouellette.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the building accessibility betterments are underway. We’re in phase two right now. We’ve completed phase one last year and that was primarily all of the work that was being done on the main floor area and now we’re just looking at a second floor area where some of the doorways have been widened and the committee rooms and access into the Members’ and executive areas and looking at the installation of automatic door openers and whatnot. We’re scheduled to complete that work by the end of this fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. Ouellette. Mr. Bouchard.
Another program I know they’ve been working on is the signage in the whole area of the Legislative Assembly, the tourist booth, the museum and stuff like that.
Can we just get an update? Do we have anything coming up in the upcoming budget on that or is it just all this year’s expenditure? I’m looking forward to seeing some of that completion.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Speaker Jacobson.
Yes, all the signage will be completed this year.
Thank you, Speaker Jacobson. Mr. Bouchard is finished. Anything further? Office of the Clerk, infrastructure investments, $200,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you. Turning back, then, to page 9, total for the Legislative Assembly, infrastructure investments, $200,000.
Agreed.
Does the committee agree that this concludes consideration of the budget for the Legislative Assembly?
Agreed.
Agreed. Thank you. Thank you, Speaker Jacobson, Mr. Mercer, Mr. Ouellette. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort these gentlemen from the Chamber. Thank you.
Okay, does the committee agree that we have concluded consideration of Tabled Document 281-17(5), Capital Estimates, 2016-2017?
Agreed.
Thank you. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 281-17(5), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates, 2016-2017, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 281-17(5) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The motion is in order and is being distributed now. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Motion is carried.
---Carried
Tabled Document 281-17(5) is now ready for consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill.
Does committee agree, then, that we’ll now proceed to Tabled Document 325-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2015-2016?
Agreed.
Thank you. Opening remarks, Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m here to present Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2015-2016. This document provides for an increase of $2.1 million to the capital budget.
The most significant items are:
$1.5 million to provide the Department of Public Works and Services a capital appropriation to renovate office space in the YK Centre. This amount is fully offset by a lease inducement provided by the landlord; and
$400,000 for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to provide funding for the increased costs for the new air tractor fleet due to the current exchange rate between the Canadian and American dollar.
I am prepared to review the details of the supplementary estimates document. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I would like to ask the Minister if he would like to bring witnesses into the Chamber.
Yes, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses to the table.
Minister Miltenberger, for the record, could you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me Deputy Minister Mike Aumond and deputy secretary to the FMB Sandy Kalgutkar.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. General comments. I have Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have some general questions to the Minister about the ENR expenditure on the US purchase of these aircraft.
My first question is: Why wouldn’t we have hedged the major purchase of these assets and are we making that correction going forward? We know we have multiple payments to make in US currency and are we making that in the future so that we don’t have to spend $400,000 every time we try to make a payment?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The whole practice of hedging is a separate, highly volatile profession of its own, and if we could, with any certainty, know which way things were going to go as hedgers, as has been pointed out, I’d probably be sitting in lavish luxury somewhere in maybe another locale. Be that as it may, we don’t normally buy a lot of things in US funds and, no, we did not hedge, buy any dollars to hedge on this. Yes, we are looking at how we could possibly ameliorate that impact. But I would also point out that earlier in this process we came before the Legislature and we moved some money up to take advantage of an opportunity that saved us, about a year or so ago, about $350,000, so things are close to balancing out. But the issue of hedging and having to pay money because of the exchange rate is something that we are, as I indicated, trying to ameliorate. I’ll ask the deputy minister if he wants to add anything further, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To follow up on the Minister’s comments, the Department of Finance will set up a facility at an institution and we will explore opportunities to get more certainty into the costing going forward, but as the Minister said, it does come with its own risks. Depending on where you hedge the dollar, it could go up or go further down, so it’s not without risk. But again, we will take prudent measures to mitigate our exposure going forward.
Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Obviously, my next question is for Public Works and Services spending another $1.5 million on more office space in Yellowknife. Obviously, this is a concern. I know we just built a whole building. I know we have millions and millions of dollars out there in rental space in Yellowknife, and obviously, it’s been key to me to do some decentralization and promote decentralization and now we’re spending another $1.5 million to do some more office upgrades.
Can the Minister just give me an explanation of this $1.5 million being spent, and how often do we spend another $1.5 million on office space in Yellowknife?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This money in question is money that was provided to us as an inducement to help encourage and make lease renewal more of a possibility, so the money is sitting there in an account as an inducement given to us and we are just now seeking approval to put that money to use to do different improvements. Once again, Madam Chair, I’d ask if the deputy minister wanted to add anything further.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Minister said, this is an inducement for a lease renewal for a leased property, not a property that the GNWT owns, so it’s at no cost to the Government of the Northwest Territories so we were looking to… The only condition was that we had to do it in the building that the lease landlord owns and so we still need the appropriation authority to spend that money, given that the funds were already provided to the Government of the Northwest Territories. The request here is to see the legislative approval to spend the money for its intended purpose.
Any other general comments? Mr. Dolynny.
