Thank you, Minister. We will begin with general comments. Does the Minister of Finance wish to bring any witnesses into the house?
Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Would the Minister please introduce his witnesses?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my left I have Mr. Mike Aumond, who is the secretary to the Financial Management Board and deputy minister of Finance; to my right I have Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, who is the deputy secretary to the Financial Management Board.
I'll now open the floor to general comments. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair I did send a set of questions to the Minister on the special warrant, so, if I may, I'd like to proceed with some questions to the Minister and his witnesses. I'm wondering if the Minister can explain how the GNWT ended up owning the Mactung mineral property. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I apologize to the Member. We appreciate the questions that came beforehand; I'm just waiting for responses to come back. I'll just pull up my briefing note here and wing it, and if I wing it long enough, the responses might be down.
---Laughter
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't want to gobble up my 10 minutes if the Minister doesn't have the responses to the rest of the questions that I provided. I'm just wondering how I might best proceed here.
We will be getting to that section in a little while, so if you want to wait and ask your questions then, that might give the Minister time to get his answers. Is that agreeable?
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Are there any further general comments? Mr. McNeely.
Yes, I'll speak to the motion there, Mr. Chair. Forging forward, moving forward here, on the ownership of this property, could you explain a little bit on the current cost of carrying the titleship, or are there any leases that have to be incurring annual lease payments?
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Finance Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We own that particular piece of property now, so there would be no lease payments in the future.
Mr. McNeely.
The supplementary to that is: Are there any payments to the Yukon Government for leases, titleship, or the federal government?
Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We own that particular piece of property and we'll have to confirm if there would be any taxes that might be having to be paid to the Yukon Government, but I will confirm that and I will share it with the committee.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I should have used the word property taxes.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Mr. McLeod.
Yes. Again, we will confirm that and share it with committee.
Thank you. Mr. McNeely. Anything further?
No thanks, Mr. Chair.
Are there any more general comments, noting that we will get to particular sections later on? Seeing no general comments, we'll proceed to a review of the supplementary estimates by department. We'll begin on page six. Are there any general comments on this section, “Environment and Natural Resources”? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note that there was a decision to transfer the Fur Harvest Management System from the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. I'm just wondering if the Minister could inform the committee on why that decision was made and the benefits of the transfer to the operation of this program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When the traditional economy activities from ITI were transferred to ENR, that included the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program, and so this database is used to support the activities of that program, so it made sense to transfer that program from ITI to ENR where the program's actually being delivered from now. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do understand that the transfer was made and it's just continuing through with the traditional economy activities. I'm just wondering why that decision was made from a structural viewpoint, why ITI's no longer responsible for the traditional economy activities and why that's moved over to ENR and further to that, what the benefit of that to government operations is in moving the transfer of traditional economy from ITI, which is responsible for most of our economic programs, over to ENR. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister McLeod.
With the Chair's indulgence, I would like to direct that to the Minister of ITI.
That's fine. Minister of ITI McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At one time when ITI and ENR were altogether in the Department of RWED, RWED delivered all of the programs for fur to the harvesters. When it was decided to split RWED back into ITI and ENR, it was felt that part of the fur programs would go to ITI and part of the programs would stay with ENR, although, in reality, most of the programs were delivered by the renewable or wildlife officers and ITI primarily funded some of the programs. After devolution and reassignment of some responsibilities, it was felt that it would be a better fit to have ENR deliver the majority of the fur programs. ITI would continue to look after the marketing side and market furs under the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program label. At this time, it seems to be working, but in reality, we'll probably be reviewing it again to see where it best fits. But as I said, ENR was delivering most of the programs anyways. To make it more effective and efficient, that's why it was done this way. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Testart.
Nothing further, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. We'll consider the details of this section. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, corporate management, not previously authorized, $65,000.
Agreed.
Environment and Natural Resources Capital Investment Expenditures, total department. $65,000.”
Agreed.
We will proceed to page seven. Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, administrative and support services, not previously authorized, $110,000. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm just seeking some clarification. The briefing note indicates that this is for a program delivered regionally and in Yellowknife, yet the two handi-vans are to small communities. I'm just looking for clarification on that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister of Finance, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, two vehicles were purchased for the communities of Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess it's not important, but I wondered why it indicated that it was for program delivery in regional centres and Yellowknife, yet vehicles are going to small communities.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Would the Finance Minister like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair.The vehicles are used by health and social services authorities to deliver programs in the regions and Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
