Michael Miltenberger

Thank you. I will extend the commitment that I made to the Member for Nahendeh as well as the Member for Nunakput about discussing this issue with the deputy minister and the board chairs.

I’d like also to point out that we’re spending millions of dollars in electronic health records, medical records, telehealth. We have a very ambitious plan for a fibre optic line down the valley that would provide fibre optic link to all the communities and give them the best cutting-edge communication services so, in fact, their telehealth systems would work at full capacity. Children would be able to go on...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The issue of the financing of the boards and the dealing with surpluses has been an issue for some time. In order to respond to that in a planned, rational way, there was a change made to how surpluses, defining what a surplus is and how it can be accumulated, so that the rules have been clarified and put in place so that the new Surplus Retention Policy is going to be 1 percent of the revenues up to a maximum of $250,000. As well, we will provide committee members with the information. The work that was done on the budgets of the boards are all based on the audits...

The issue of the fire budget is one that I agree with the Member has come up on a regular basis. As we’ve discussed in the past, there was a decision made to fund it at the lower level and have them come back once they could demonstrate and had some idea of what the costs were going to be. There were some good suggestions from committee that we’ve made note of. For example, using a 10-year running average is one possible way to look at a more realistic fire budget. We’ll consider all those as we look at the upcoming budget year.

With regard to the health and social services system, once again I...

Mr. Chairman, the negotiator fee is going to be when there is a negotiator decided on that will represent the Aboriginal government, that will help offset... That will be the fee to help cover the costs of that particular individual. The broader amount of $175,000 tied into working with the Aboriginal committees and groups will pay for those costs. So that negotiator fee will be specific. We anticipate having probably a three member with a lead negotiator and Aboriginal representative at the table along with the GNWT representative that’s going to be very focused and highly skilled, so that’s...

I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2011-2012. This document outlines an increase of $14.310 million in operations expenditures for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

The major items included in the supplementary estimates are:

$6.012 million for a special warrant approved on June 29, 2011, for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to fund the shortfall for forest fire suppression due to a severe forest fire season in 2011.

$2.296 million for the Department of Executive to support transition and implementation activities related to the Devolution...

Two things: the Member and I have discussed this and, as well, with the deputies, and as far as I understand, there is money there for a conference to be held in the Member’s constituency and the region. The detail has not ever been worked out in terms of having the workshop. It’s the one region that we have yet to have the workshop. We’ve talked about it for some time.

I agree with the Member about the concerns out of the Peel watershed. In fact, we’ve had correspondence with the Yukon Minister indicating that we think it’s time to look at that agreement that was signed many years ago through...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, just to confirm for the record, we’ve noted the Member’s concerns and we will provide that formal feedback to the work done to date and the outcomes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 2-16(6), Report on the Review of the Auditor General’s Report on the NWT Health Programs and Services 2011.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What I was referring to was some of the work we’ve done as an Assembly with regard to water, the Water Strategy, getting our thinking clear, the principles -- the policy was developed in full collaboration and support of the Aboriginal governments -- is going to inform a lot of the work going forward on devolution as it pertains to the water issue because we’ve taken the last four years of time to do that. It’s in forming our transboundary negotiations as well. That’s an example of some of the work that’s being done in anticipation of us in the Northwest Territories...