Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, No. 2, be read for the second time. This bill amends the Revolving Funds Act to establish a revolving fund for the purpose of meeting the capital, operating, and maintenance requirements for providing marine transportation services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. First off, I would like to start by saying that in no way am I opposed to our government operating the marine transportation system, and I believe that we had to do it at the time. I do support us operating the system and continuing to supply our communities with fuel and other supplies as necessary.
What I am opposed to, though, is setting this up as a revolving fund. My objections, Mr. Speaker, really stem from two things. First off, by setting it up as a revolving fund, capital spending will be removed from the regular capital budgeting process, and I believe that this will remove our ability as Regular MLAs to have thorough oversight of capital expenditures. So, for that reason, I am opposed to the bill.
Secondly, the purpose of the bill as specified here is for the purpose of meeting the capital, operating, and maintenance requirements for providing marine transportation services for the movement of cargo on Great Slave Lake, Mackenzie River, and throughout the Arctic coastal region. What I believe that this bill has not spoken to, and we certainly raised in the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, is whether these funds could be used to pay for remediation of many of the contaminated sites from the previous operator that our government has now inherited. So by limiting the purpose of the revolving fund to these purposes alone, I don't see remediation of contaminated sites in here. I am not suggesting that that be a core purpose of the revolving fund but, if this operation were to generate excess profits of one sort or another, I don't understand why they could not be used to offset some of the remediation costs. Otherwise, they are going to come back to the taxpayers of the Northwest Territories.
We raised this at committee. There was no movement from the Minister on rejigging the purpose of the bill, and so I will continue to oppose the bill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion has been carried.
---Carried
Minister of Infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 74(2) and have Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, No. 2, moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Unanimous consent granted
