Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I wish I could just go "yeah," again. Not quite.

Contaminated sites, for example, are accounted for differently. I think other it's just that yeah, and maybe that actually does go to the it does go to some of the questions that the MLA for Frame Lake was asking, is that there are different standards that attach to different sites depending on the nature of the site. But here what we have is just, you know, assets that didn't previously have accounted for the fact that there's a legal liability at some point to, you know, retire the asset.

So this is...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this is a P3 arrangement. The Mackenzie Valley fibre line is a P3 arrangement right now. So similar to others where determining the kind of risk that is at play, that the best way to mitigate the risk and maximize the availability of the spend that we have for an asset, was done through a P3 arrangement. So it's a GNWT asset, as I've said. It's reflected on our GNWT, you know, books, if you will. But for us to necessarily be the singular party involved would have involved a cost, an upfront cost that is difficult for the government to manage. That's why we...

Again, Madam Chair, the short answer is yes, and this is one where, I think, I'm fairly familiar with the extent of involvement in Whati because I know with the road going in, there was a real desire to make sure that there was a lot of work done with the community of Whati to the extent that they wanted it.

But what I would like to perhaps commit to doing is -- is offering to have the Member from Monfwi sit down with the folks at our North Slave office, who are the leads from ITI, who have been working directly with Tlicho, and we can walk through what we are doing and if there's gaps that she...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm not sure if I am realizing what is different about the numbers I have versus not. Let me see if I can direct that to the deputy minister and see if perhaps I just misunderstood the question.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, we're happy to do that, I mean but, again, it's the accountants of the Finance can come in and explain how this was done to comply with the accounting standards. But I'm going to be speaking to my colleagues about the departments that are actually responsible when the time comes to incur the costs, because this is reflective of an asset the asset's value as it's considers the fact of having to have it retired at some point. Yeah, there's a different conversation to be had that's Infrastructure, and I say, again, I suspect ENR.

I certainly wasn't...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I don't have the information of that being under consideration right now. Perhaps I just check in with Mr. Wind and see if he has any comments on that question. Thanks.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this is one of those examples where when there's changes being proposed and it's actually changes that are being proposed under the last capital plan, the departments are expected to notify MLAs of those changes and yet the Member for Monfwi did mention earlier to me this week that we should go through this letter, and I'm still happy to do that in more detail.

But just briefly, it's a situation where there's a surplus from one project, specifically a security fence around the North Arm Park, and so looking to take that. There's money that was allocated to an outhouse...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it is certainly my anticipation that it will be, and we'll have actuals ready in the fall to know exactly what numbers we have available to spend on capital at that time. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. So I mean, in short, yes, there's, I think, fairly significantly different processes that are undergone when a major industrial project by a private actor is trying to get various licenses versus an accounting exercise to go in and determine what the value of an asset is that reflects potential costs.

So, you know, I can't speak to every sewage lagoon or the size of it or every fuel tank. I can't say that the intention here is not the same as an obligation to return an entire mine site to a natural state. This is an accounting exercise to understand, you know, what would...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this is right now what's on what's on paper here is the anticipated extension to the Mackenzie Valley fibre line, and so indeed if that proceeds, it would just be an extension of that. Thank you, Madam Chair.