Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked about the infrastructure projects in the Sahtu and the projects that are underway. There is some commitment to some of them happening in the Sahtu and also to other communities in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister, in light of his ministerial statement on the fiscal and economic updates in the Northwest Territories and the challenges that are going to be facing the 17th Assembly, I want to ask the Minister in retrospect of the projects that are already committed in the Northwest Territories for this year and next year and the year after, that these dollars will be there to complete those projects. I want to ask the Minister, does this government have a good leg to stand on in terms of completing these projects?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my statement, the capital plan for this current year is well underway. Next year, as we have all agreed to, for the consideration of the 17th Assembly we have set a target of $75 million. With that very modest sum coming down from $1.1 billion over the last three years, the capital plan will be pretty well consumed by many of the existing multi-year projects. It will be up to the new Legislature to look at what opportunities are there to try to meet additional infrastructure needs.
So we’ve put in the books the projects that we’ve agreed as the Assembly of this government, and now what I’m hearing the Minister saying to the people is that the projects that have already been agreed to, the multi-year funding projects may be in jeopardy. In light of what the Minister is saying to the House by stating the forecast that the government now will have to deal with the capital infrastructure expenditures, is that correct?
In my statement I indicated that we have needs of over about $2.7 billion over the next few years, or about $530 million a year of identified needs. We have, starting next year, $75 million a year in the capital plan. So we have some very hard choices to make. There’s going to be a need to make those choices and it’s going to take more time at $75 million a year. In fact, as I indicated, we will probably never catch up at that rate, which is why one of the challenges for the 17th Assembly is going to be how we can possibly supplement that capital plan money.
Is the Minister meeting with his federal counterpart or other Finance Ministers in Canada to look at this situation here in the North, in light of what we may be faced with? Can the Minister provide us with a brief update as to what type of actions or strategies this government is doing to see that some of these capital projects start and finish on time and on budget?
We’re doing a number of things, as I’ve indicated publicly and to the Members. We have current discussions going on right now with the federal Finance in terms of borrowing limits. We are also looking actively at other pots of government money that may be there, federal government money such as a P3 funding, to look at some other projects that may apply under that particular fund. Of course, the other area that would possibly bring more money into the government coffers is the revenue side. We haven’t looked at that specifically, but there is going to be a need to look not only at the expenditure but, as well, the revenue side. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister lay out a little more of a clear path, I guess, in the transition document as to the funding that could be looked at in the 17th or closing this Assembly here as to what are some of the close certainties of the financial revenues that we may seek either from the feds or from our own sources in the Territories?
Yes, we will be leaving the detailed fiscal update. We’ll be leaving details in all the program areas. We have to keep in mind, as well, as we look around the world, that we’re now once again into very shaky, uncertain economic times with growth projections in some cases on the negative side. There’s still trouble in the United States. There’s trouble in Europe. We are not immune to those, so as we look at our own business, we have things we can look at. Some of the things we have to keep a very close eye on, of course, is the revenue side, where we have lots of multi-nationals that do business here, and hopefully their revenue side will stay up at the same time as we look to manage our expenditures. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
