Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With me is Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of Finance, and Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, the deputy secretary for the Financial Management Board. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present Supplementary Appropriation No. 1, 2009-2010 (Operation Expenditures). This document outlines an increase of $4.27 million in operations expenditures for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The major items in this supplementary are requesting two:

$3.6 million for the Department of Health and Social Services for the increased cost associated with a new contract between the Government of the Northwest Territories and NWT positions.

$485,000 for the Department of Transportation to continue research and development projects funded under the Building Canada...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have to ask the Member to repeat the question. I think he is asking whether the $37 million has been counted twice.

Mr. Chairman, we provided the list to committee. I would be happy to share that. We have all the details of these known liabilities.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me the deputy minister, Margaret Melhorn, and Sandy Kalgutkar, the deputy secretary to the Financial Management Board. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just will note the Member’s comments and will look forward to that discussion, as the Member suggested, during business plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present Supplementary Appropriation No. 4, 2008-2009. This document requests authority for additional appropriations of $46,691,000 for operations expenditures for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

There are two items in this request:

1.

To provide appropriation authority in the amount of $9.3 million for the Department of the Executive, Financial Management Board Secretariat to record the increase required to the estimated accrued environment liabilities of the Government of the Northwest Territories as at March 31, 2009, as required by Canadian Generally...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Of course, we’re prepared to work with the Member and, as we indicated in our meetings with the small, rural, remote communities committee, the idea of sitting down with the committee and some of the members from the communities and Association of Communities would help us initiate that process.

I would like to point out, though, that while we managed to keep government expenditures to 2 percent, the money that flowed through the communities was kept at 9 percent in recognition of the fact that there are needs at the community level.

So I take the Member’s concern and...

Yes, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

I am pleased to present Supplementary Appropriation No. 1 (Infrastructure Expenditures) 2009-2010. This document outlines a reduction of $300,000 for operations expenditures and additional appropriations of $8.5 million for capital investment expenditures in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

The items for capital investment expenditures include:

$2.5 million for the costs associated with the installation of wood pellet heating systems in GNWT facilities;

$6 million to advance construction of the all-weather access road from Tuktoyaktuk to Gravel Source 177, a Building Canada...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This issue has been given serious consideration, as Mr. McLeod indicated. There is work being done. There is determination of the most appropriate routes, assessment of the gravel source, the quality of the gravel, all those technical issues that have to be resolved. This is on our list and it is being given due and appropriate, serious consideration and as the work is completed, we’ll collectively be in a position to be able to determine the next steps that are possible within the resources available.