Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here to present Bill 11, Financial Administration and Public Agency Statutes (Borrowing Provisions) Amendment Act.

This bill amends the Financial Administration Act as well as statutes respecting five public agencies to ensure the Financial Management Board has the authority to manage and control the activities of government and public agencies that constitute borrowing for the purposes of the Northwest Territories Borrowing Limits Regulations made under the Northwest Territories Act (Canada).

That completes the remarks that I have and I will be pleased to answer any...

I wish to table the following document, entitled “Framework for Action 2012-2016.” Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on June 6, 2013, I will move that Bill 25, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2013-2014, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance, and Mr. Olin Lovely, director of budgeting and evaluation, Department of Finance. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, the intent is to carry on with the work and get it done as soon as possible. They have another school year coming up in the fall. The anticipation is they’d like to have this system functional by then. I would point out one of the other purposes of the student information system of course is tied to the funding for DEAs and DECs which is based on enrolment as of October. The plan would be to get it done and hopefully to be up and ready by the upcoming school year in September.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2013-2014. This document outlines an increase of $17.757 million in operations expenditures for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

The major items included in the supplementary estimates are:

$9.7 million for the Department of Executive for funding for costs associated with the implementation of the final Devolution Agreement. The net impact on government operations is nil as these costs will be offset with funding to be received from the federal government.

$2.5 million for the Department of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we are going to see is efficiencies in effectiveness and service delivery. We are going to see avoided costs, especially on the procurement model side. This is not a cost savings where we are going to realize, as the Member said, millions, hundreds of thousands of dollars of money. What we are looking at with the resources we have available, how do we better organize ourselves to be more responsive and effective and this is what you’re going to get, and you will have, over the long-term, the avoided costs, the realization of the coordinated approach we’re taking...

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to waive Rule 69(2) and have Bill 11 moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you.

---Consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the procurement side, one of the clear areas, of course, is anticipation through volume discounts when we have more coordinated and integrated procurement processes. Those economies of scale will become more clearly evident across the board. In a number of ways we have different departments, different regions all doing their own purchasing. I believe I mentioned, in a previous sitting, using the bundled water plants as an example, where we recognized that as a government we did five water plants in a coordinated way, we had a common procurement policy, we had a...