Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Madam Chair. In regard to the issue of ice roads, at the risk of possibly stating the obvious, there is no money in this interim appropriation for ice roads. The ice road money will come in through the regular main estimates in May/June and it will be targeted for the winter of 2012-13.

In regard to the specific questions about licensing, the DOT operation in the Sahtu becoming a regional centre, the possible move of personnel from Transportation to the Sahtu and possibly the Deh Cho Bridge, I will ask the chair for your indulgence to let the Minister of Transportation answer those...

Thank you, Madam Chair. From the Department of Finance I have with me the deputy minister, Mike Aumond, and the director of the Financial Management Board Secretariat, Olin Lovely.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 69(2) and have Bill 1 moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I seek consent to proceed with second reading with Bill 1, an Act to Amend the Borrowing Authorization Act. Thank you.

It’s only with the most current information before us that we’ll be able to sit down in the fall and determine whether there is an ability to re-examine the current limitations and make any adjustments that may be appropriate, based on that information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I tried to indicate in my Minister’s statement this afternoon, once the surveys are done and the information has been collated, we will share that information with the co-management boards. We will share it with the stakeholders and the public. At that time we will be able to see what the information tells us and if we, in fact, have room to move in terms of adjusting any of the restrictions. Thank you.

Yes, Madam Chair.

The Member is in the legislative legends with his song “If I Had a Million Dollars” and if you sign the deal with devolution, you’ll have over $300 million, so I think you should just keep that one in mind as he’s making music.

We will have the discussion about the legislation, the issue about the programs that are best held with the Minister of Health and Social Services. There’s been a democratic vote that’s been taken, a decision has been made by the voters in Norman Wells, and we have acted upon that as we are required to do and obligated to do under our democratic system. If we want to...

If we’re going to in fact make music together, we’ll have to ensure that it’s not a sad song, because I understand from the questions in the House yesterday that the Member has a broken heart as a result of devolution, so we’ll have to be very careful what kind of music we make. As I’ve indicated, I’m more than willing to sit down with the Member and talk the specifics.

That commitment stands for the Member in his constituency as well as all the other Members opposite. We will and are going to do the best job possible with the resources available. We are going to look at making strategic investments. When the Minister of Transportation is back from his travels, he will be able to speak to great detail about the Member’s concerns whether from a broad government point of view. This issue very clearly is on our to-do list, our priority list should extra funds become available, which we anticipate they will in the coming months. Thank you.