Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week, on May 28, 2015, in question period with this Member, the Finance Minister took certain liberties to talk about this new special relationship the government has with NWT Power and its Hydro Corporations. In the Minister’s own words, “that relationship has become very close,” and that, “we should look at how we should change our reporting relationship.”
Upon review in edited Hansard, the Finance Minister mentioned not once but three separate occasions to the Member’s questions, one of them: “the fact that the Auditor General himself has pointed out that we need to change.”
Now, let’s validate these comments to what was actually said by the Auditor General of Canada during the formal public audit review of the 2014 NWT Public Accounts and let’s see if indeed the Auditor General told this government the need for a relationship change, or simply some cleanup in their accounting practice.
On January 22, 2015, the Auditor General of Canada met with Standing Committee on Government Operations and on January 23rd held an open public review. In both presentations the Auditor General stated the NWT Power and Hydro Corporations were not self-sustaining and required ongoing financial support. This merely prompted the management to adopt proper Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards, or PSAS, and a change of classification for the hydro corporations from business enterprise to what is referred to as “other government organization.”
In the Auditor General’s own words, “NWT Hydro will be accounted for on a line-by-line basis as opposed to a summary basis in 2015.” That’s all. There was no suggestion by the Auditor General about the GNWT’s relationship change with NTPC, other than simple accounting cleanup. Nothing more.
So, the Finance Minister is spinning this to sound much different than what the Auditor General has presented to standing committee or the public. The question is why.
This goes back to my earlier questions last week. What is the secrecy behind this Cabinet, this Minister and this new hidden energy policy, but ultimately, when is this Minister going to come clean from behind the iron curtain? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
