Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some questions to the Minister of Finance. I want to follow up on my statement and also follow up from my colleagues’ questions earlier.
I would like to say that I appreciate the government’s willingness to do the right thing and put 25 percent of our new resource revenues into the Heritage Fund, but I am unable to reconcile the Minister’s words with the numbers that are in our budget. As I stated in my statement, the request was to put that money in -14-15, not in ‘15-16.
Mr. Bromley has asked this already, but I don’t believe I heard an answer, so I have to ask it again. The Minister states that we’re going to put 25 percent of resource revenues into the budget because that’s when the money is coming in, in ‘15-16, but the revenues are from the ‘14-15 year. Yes, we get them in our hand in 2015 or 2016, but the money is coming in and it should be allocated to ‘14-15 and it shows that in the budget, the $120 million.
I would like to know from the Minister why we record the revenues in ‘14-15 and yet we don’t record the expense in ‘14-15. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. None of that money is going to be available to flow until late 2015, so as I have indicated, we are going to honour our commitment to 25 percent and put it into the ‘15-16 budget. Yes, the deal starts on April 1st, but we’re going to wait until we get the money so we’re not going to be borrowing money at a high interest rate to put it into a fund where we’re not even sure what the number is. The money will go in in ‘15-16 as we have indicated. Thank you.
It gets more confusing every time the Minister answers a question, I think.
The Minister says that the money will not flow until ‘15, late ‘15 or early ‘16. I understand that, but if that’s the case, then the money is not flowing in until that same time, yet we are recording money flowing in in ‘14-15, so why are we not recording the money flowing out in ‘14-15? I’m not talking about the actual cash transaction; I am talking about the records on the books. We’re not going to get the cash until ‘15-16, so why are we recording it in ‘14-15? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we are booking a whole number of dollar figures. We are booking all the money we’re getting for our A-base transfer, for all the positions, all the programs. We are booking the notional amount of $120 million as projected revenue, and once we get the money, then we’ll talk about the expenditures which we have committed to, one of them being the Heritage Fund, the 25 percent. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it just does not compute for me. We are comparing apples and oranges and I cannot understand how it’s okay for us to record the revenues… It’s an accounting entry, I think the Minister said. So we are recording an accounting entry and it’s okay for revenues but we won’t do an accounting entry for expenses. So on the one hand we’re taking advantage and on the other hand the government is also taking advantage and saying we’re not going to do it in ‘14-15, we’ll do it in ‘15-16.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he can tell me, since 5 percent is presumably what the budget was presumably based on, where does that show up in the ‘14-15 budget? Thank you.
It doesn’t.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That confirms what I had believed, that yes, it’s not in there.
The Minister, in his budget address, talked about 5 percent. Today was the first day that I heard that he was talking about 5 percent in ‘15-16. In all our discussions previous to this, I have never been advised that this 5 percent was not intended for the ‘14-15 budget.
I don’t have a question here, but I am quite dismayed that we’ve been led down a garden path and the only amount that’s going into the Heritage Fund for this ‘14-15 year is $250,000. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, nobody has been led down the garden path. What we’ve had here in this House over the last few days is a very fundamental debate about what amount of money is going to be put into the Heritage Fund on a go-forward basis that will eventually be put into legislation. There was a critical first step and that’s what we’ve had.
We had listed in our budget address, in the budget, 5 percent, and if the House would have just concurred with that, 5 percent would be what would be driving us, as a government, on a go-forward basis in the Legislative Assembly. Now we have clarified that very fundamental point. That’s why it was listed there, so we could make sure it was clear in writing and resolved. Now it has been resolved and it’s 25 percent. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
