Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Finance. I would like to thank the Minister at the outset for the fiscal and economic update that he provided us today, but I have a few questions with regard to some of the statements in his statement.
Initially, my first question goes to the announcement that BHP Billiton made recently that they plan to invest, along with partners, some $323 million in the NWT in the Ekati Diamond Mine as they go to expanding one of their pipes. I think that’s great news. Initially, I thought that was wonderful, we’re spending an awful lot of money here. I’d like to ask the Finance Minister if I could get an expression or an indication from him for the bottom line, because we know very well that once a mine spends money, that they then can claim it back and get 100 percent reduction on their taxes. So what kind of an impact is this investment by Ekati going to have on our revenues? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We believe this is good news for the Northwest Territories. Yes, there is the ability for corporations to write off capital investments within a specified period of time, but it also indicates that there’s going to be more diamond production, that there’s going to be, in all probability, possibly more staff hired. I don’t have a specific number at this early date what we anticipate the benefit will be to the bottom line, but this type of investment, this type of expansion will add, we think, somewhat to the mine life, but it will also increase and have a good impact on our bottom line. When we have that information, I would be happy to share that with committee. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister and I look forward to the information that he’s committed to provide. The Minister further on in his statement talked about the fact that we as a government and they as the Executive Council have set a cap of 3 percent spending on our future spending growth and we’ve managed to reasonably stay within that, I think, in the last little while. However, every year it seems we have supplementary appropriations, extra funding requests made by various departments. I’d like to know from the Minister what percentage of growth on an annual basis have we had over this past four years when we factor in all the supplementary appropriation requests which have come forward and have been approved. Thank you.
Those budget numbers are contained and we stay within the 3 percent cap that we set overall. Thank you.
I guess I need to ask the Minister a written question, perhaps, to show me exactly how we reach 3 percent when we started something just under 3 percent and ask for millions and millions of dollars. I wonder why we don’t go over the 3 percent cap.
I’d like to ask the Minister as well, he talked about finding critical investments, sorry, financing critical investments by finding partners in the private sector to assist us with certain large projects. It’s well known that our last effort with private partners was rather controversial and it’s unfortunately still ongoing. I’d like to know from the Minister what will be done to ensure that we won’t enter into an agreement with partners in the private sector that will lead us down the same path that we’re currently on. Thank you.
We’ve been doing a lot of work on a P3 policy and that work is coming before us and will be shared with a committee based on the work that’s been done to date, the feedback from committee and it will be that policy that will guide us as we move forward. The Member is correct; the $75 million that we have planned for 2012-13 is very modest, especially when you look at the $1.1 billion that we put on the ground over the last three years. So we’re going to have to use our collective ingenuity and creativity to come up with ways to supplement that. Things like the private/public partnerships are going to be a critical avenue to tap into the federal program that’s there as well as find private partners to help do projects such as the fibreoptic line. We have a hospital renovation that is coming with Stanton that is going to make the bridge look like a very modest investment and we’re going to have to work collectively to make sure we can fund all these particular initiatives. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that explanation. I look forward to seeing the finalized P3 policy really soon.
The last paragraph of the Minister’s statement talked about NWT residents and businesses engaging in meaningful and frank debate. I was really encouraged to hear the Minister say that. I guess I would like to know from him what is the intent of that statement, what plans are in the works, and can I get a bit of a description of what’s intended. Thank you.
There’s been a lot of work done in the life of this Assembly on where we are going as a Northwest Territories, what people see the future is and in terms of a vision and some of the general directions. What we’re also going to have the much harder discussion as we look at government, the revenues we have, the expenditures that are upon us, the unrelenting requests for program expansions and the other pressures we have on us to try to manage our resources to stay solvent and to not go into long-term debt. So the discussion is going to be what we have talked about as a Legislature, for example, through things like the Program Review Office to look at efficiencies, but more importantly, what are the things government does, what should it do and what shouldn’t it do. We are expected to be, in many cases, all things to all people and just things like capital loans are just not sustainable with the revenues we currently have. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
