Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I laid out what the bylaws say and the money is to be used for the benefit of the Legislative Assembly, so there is a significant amount of discretion. The Board of Management looked at what was in the best interests of the Legislature, both in terms of $275,000 that’s going towards infrastructure improvements, and then, since this is a building of the people, you have a celebration of the fact that we have paid off the mortgage. We had some surplus left, and we have a good reason to celebrate, and so they combined the two. It’s been checked through by the Law Clerks...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can commit to get that information for the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The infrastructure costs, the conversion costs are going to be one time for the synthetic natural gas. There has, in fact, been a modest decrease in overall consumption. So as the energy issues both in Norman Wells and Inuvik play out, we’ll see where we end up, finally, when it comes to an ongoing energy source.

There also has been, not so much in the Housing Corporation, but there’s been a migration by a lot of individuals to biomass and other forms of heating energy that they control on their own just because of the uncertainty. But we anticipate that the costs...

The Legislative Assembly Building Society’s bylaws state that any surplus is to be used for the benefit of the Legislative Assembly building and the Legislative Assembly did receive legal advice from its Law Clerk that the wording of the society’s bylaws was broad enough to include all the planned projects for the surplus, including the celebration events. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, we have a very clear policy as it pertains to the values at risk, starting with safety, people, communities and infrastructure and then we move back from there. As we saw this summer in the Deh Cho, for example, there were a number of fires in their communities and we pulled all our resources available, plus we brought in whatever we had to, to protect those values at risk. That policy and criteria is very clearly laid out. Thank you.

This $8.706 million will have us fully subscribing to the $26.5 million.

There is a capital infrastructure component, which is currently before us. Then the remainder of the balance of the money will be accounted for in the O and M supp. Thank you.

I have just two quick comments. The issue with avgas is you have to make sure you have it there ahead of time, because if you don’t have it and you need it, chances are it’s going to take a week, 10 days, sometimes two to three weeks if it has to come in by truck, so you’re really up against it.

Yes, absolutely, we will be continuing to come forward to committee with big reviews, all the matters pertaining to firefighting behaviour along with the very many other ENR issues that we routinely come to committee with. Thank you.

I just wanted to note, for the record, that the Member referenced the culpability of the Legislative Assembly Building Society members and I wanted to point out clearly, unequivocally, with no ambiguity, that culpability implies some kind of wrongdoing, some kind of guilt for something that’s happened.

I think we should all be collectively thanking the Legislative Assembly Building Society members for the work that they’ve done, the honour that they’ve carried out the responsibility with and the thoroughness and long-lasting dedication.

For the record, there is no culpability. That word shouldn...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me the deputy minister of Finance and the director of the Management Board Secretariat.