Michael Miltenberger

I appreciate the Member’s comments and we do over time look at base budgets. We don’t just keep them pegged at last century’s costs or that type of thing. When we look, the Health budget has grown since 1999. It’s doubled. With the THSSI money from the feds, part of which was dedicated to medical travel, there is going to be a bump-up in this coming fiscal year.

In keeping with the Member’s comments, recognizing that the cost drivers are going to be there, some of the biggest being on an upward climb. For example, just the cost of fuel. Then the demand.

I appreciate the Member’s comments and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have Ms. Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of Finance; and Sandy Kalgutkar, deputy secretary to the FMB.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In terms of Health being off limits and questions being discouraged, I would suggest that if we checked Hansard, speaking as a Minister of Health for five years, my recollection, as it is today, is just in this House, on a constant basis, the Health Minister tends to top the questions in this House on an ongoing basis. It doesn’t matter which Minister you pick, which Assembly you pick.

We have a circumstance. We are talking about how do we budget. The debate is, do you budget on actual or do you budget on estimates. The Member talks about accountabilities and you want...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2009-2010. This document outlines an increase of $29.284 million for operations expenditures for departmental over-expenditures in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

During the year-end process to finalize the GNWT financial statements, adjustments are typically made to department expenditures to ensure the statements are prepared in accordance with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles. The 2009-2010 year-end process identified a number of adjustments that result in departments exceeding...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is an issue that is consistently before the House. There is a requirement to come back, because there’s the issue of costs that tend to constantly escalate. There is work being done, as the Minister of Health has indicated, with her Foundation for Change. There’s a review through the program review office right now taking a look at the medical travel costs and drivers and structures and processes to see if there are ways to deal with this. Some of the consistent pressures are that we have, in a lot of areas on a national basis, a fairly rapidly aging population...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, November 1, 2010, I will move that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I recognize that there is interest in issues broader than this supplementary appropriation. What we’re talking about today is basically carving the money out of Education and the resources out of Education to move them back into the Housing Corporation and this does not talk about any further program enhancement at this point. I mean, those are legitimate questions, once again, but sitting here with the supplementary document, it’s not something I’m in a position to speak to in this particular forum. If there’s further information, I could ask the appropriate...

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories supports global and local actions to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

We continue to build on our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by advancing a number of alternative energy sources. This government’s energy priorities include solar, wind, hydroelectricity, geothermal and biomass energy projects.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has taken on the challenge of expanding the use of solar, wind, geothermal and biomass energy. Although widely used elsewhere in the...

Mr. Chairman, the intent is to contain our costs, and the questions and suggestions that the Member has, or recommendations, would relate to the business planning process. The Member’s suggestions for an HR plan that will clearly delineate the resources that are now going to be in place to take over the public housing rental scale are all very legitimate comments and suggestions that would be best debated as we look at the main estimates and the business planning process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is part of the adjustment to follow up on the commitment made in this House to return the resources and the public housing rental scale operations and authority back to the Housing Corporation. This is part of the cost. In the ensuing years, of course, there’s been other forced growth pressures that have resulted in what is before this House today. Thank you.