Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, no, I'm not going to hound the department on it further or belabour the point, but we really do need to tighten things up. I mean, times are -- we're right at the debt ceiling. I actually -- I mean, it is -- as the previous Member spoke to, I mean, it seems like it's necessary to raise the debt ceiling at this time but you have to start asking the question how long are we going to keep doing this. We can -- like, the more deeper and deeper and deeper we go into debt, the more that we spend our money servicing debt and, you know, I don't need to lecture accountants...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just the question I have around this, I know that the fiscal responsibility policy or the finding balance -- I always mix those two up -- has kind of policies related to the supplementary reserve but I'm just wondering are there policies that govern supplementary appropriations generally, what can come forward, what can't, and have we -- yeah, that's my first question, funding policies.

Okay, thank you. That's a little bit tough to hear that we're trying to save money and ended up spending more. But -- okay.

The next one I was wondering about is just the funding for the two winter roads. How are we managing to under budget for these? I mean, these are roads that we've been running for decades. We should have a good idea of the operating costs of them. Even knowing that there might be, you know, changes in -- from season to season as to different demands but I would expect that, you know, these costs are pretty significant. So is there a reason why they went up so much this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, is the department planning to run this process through the operational dialogue, or are they going to be running the process themselves? It's becoming a bit unclear to me how this is going to play out, what the expected timeline is. I just want to remind the House and the Minister that the idea of doing targeted amendments was to get it done quickly if possible. Just looking for some more clarity on how this process is going to play out and hoping to get some kind of indication from the Minister that we might be able to see the changes come forward...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Mr. Speaker, in the previous sitting of the Assembly in October, I asked the Minister about the ongoing issue of targeted amendments to the waters regulations. The Minister committed to come back to the House with a timeline for Members. I'm just wondering, Mr. Speaker, if the Minister has an update for the House today on that process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I appreciate that information and that reassurance. The reason I bring the point up is just that, you know, overall looking at this, it is difficult seeing sups of this level come forward year after year and just knowing that we're hitting our debt limit. I mean, I heard one Member kind of suggest they were going to maybe make a protest vote related to this. I mean, I'm not suggesting I'm going to do the same but it -- I do want to kind of register a concern about some of the trends that I'm seeing. And, I mean, I'm guessing that all the sups that came forward met the...

No further questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I'll just ask these one at a time.

The first one I have a question about is the additional lease funding to address the shortfall in the general purpose office space budget. Just wondering why there was a shortfall there; it seems like something that's relatively predictable and stable. If they could give me some substantiation for that one, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that news from the Minister. That certainly is encouraging. Can the Minister give us an idea of what kind of a timeline we're looking at for this. He did commit to give that to me in the previous sitting of the House. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I noted earlier today, I'm concerned about the continued misalignment between the Minister and the Aurora College board. Mr. Speaker, why aren't the department and the board coordinating and planning something like the CLC closures, polytechnic transition. How does the Minister plan to address this issue of misalignment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.