Don Stewart

Thank you, Mr. Chair. After accounting for the items that are in this supplementary bill, there will be approximately $6.4 million left in the supplementary reserve for O and M for 2016-17.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. There were two positions that were reduced. They were involved in the devolution implementation. One is in the management and recruitment services and one is in strategic human resources.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The program costs in the directorate are related to the deputy minister’s office, the office of the Chief Information Officer, and the shared corporate services unit that will be providing the services to both Department of Finance as well as Executive and Indigenous Affairs. Thank you.

Sorry, Mr. Chair. Could I get the Member to repeat the question?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe the Infrastructure Department would have the utilities budget for GNWT assets across the NWT, so I think that's where you would find the amounts that we're spending on utilities for our own assets. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That one is actually a very interesting case, because that was one where there was an offset of new sites identified and costs, as well as reductions as we cleaned up our sites, so it netted out to zero, the impact that year; but there was actually activity both positive and negative that led to that point. It wasn't that there wasn't anything going on. It just happened to net at that level for that fiscal year. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The way the environmental liabilities work for our own sites is we have a listing of all of the GNWT sites with liabilities. We have a liability fund of about $48 million that is put away to clean up those sites. The $2 million that you see in the main estimates reflects the changes on an annual basis that we would expect to happen as we either get better estimates of costs or that we clean up things or adjust them or, frankly, as new sites are identified and those sorts of things. The $2 million is actually almost like a debt value, if you like, because there may be...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think, for the Member, we will be in a position by the MayJune session to provide a briefing to the standing committee. The issue really with the heritage fund  there were two issues that were to be examined. One was around the overall governance of it and administration. The other was around some of the contribution levels.

The issue I think around governance, and we will get into this more, is really around some of the criteria on what kind of instruments we invest in. We are very conservative in our investments, and I think that is a smart strategy with this type of fund...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The expectation was that they were going to sunset, but they are actually vacant at this time. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The increase there is primarily related to the Service Innovation Strategy. That office also takes care of our involvement in CRCT hearings and those sorts of events as well, but that would be the increase reason for that one. Thanks, Mr. Chair.