Michael Miltenberger

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

I’ll just restate that we have, over the last 18 months probably, two years, we’ve been before committee on a number of occasions as our thinking has evolved on the projects, the borrowing limit, what projects we’re identifying to justify and to get the borrowing limit. If there’s a need for further meetings, we’d of course be happy to have that. When we talk about a significant investment in generation capacity in Yellowknife specifically, one of the things that are there is they hydro expansion, both potentially to the Bluefish as well as there is additional capacity in the Lac La Martre...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There were test sections, four of them, laid out 2012 and there is a monitoring program until 2015, to September 2015. They will document all that work and pull it all together at that point. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can provide that information to committee. Thank you.

We weren’t secretly supporting anything. The rates are there. There is a rate rebalancing process underway. It has been set at a 1 percent increase for this year and 3 percent for subsequent years as we move towards rebalancing. Rebalancing a rate structure that we inherited going back to federal times that is well superseded, in many cases, by the requirement for NTPC and the government to put money into things to protect the rates for all power users in the Northwest Territories, regardless of who provides or who distributes the power. I would refer specifically to things like the $37...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize if I wasn’t clear enough. This was a two-step process. We did the functional review of our communications system which gave us the information that pointed to areas of concern, including the under-resourcing and being better organized to take on these new responsibilities. Based on that work, which is already done, we’ve come forward with this request to put some resources into the communication systems to make sure we can address those issues, improve the communication systems and incorporate all the work that needs to be done with the new authorities.

So...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. These numbers are calculated as of April 1st, and some of it, as we’ve noted, some have gone up and some have gone down depending on the communities in the region. Thank you.

We are at work with other jurisdictions mapping the spread of the black legged tick that usually inhabits deer as it moves around. At this point we don’t think it has moved north, but yes, we are monitoring that, the same as we were keeping our eye on the pine beetle to see if that was going to come north into the boreal forests north of 60. We will, as well, continue to do rotating moose surveys in various jurisdictions to keep track of the herd numbers and health of the moose. Thank you.

The work was still being concluded. The report has been written, the assessments made. We had to take it back through the due process and we weren’t able to get it done in time. That would have been our initial preference, but it was not possible, hence this request through the supplementary appropriation process. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.