Michael Miltenberger

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.

The way this new process is unfolding with capitals, at least the first go around, as Finance Minister I was at the table addressing issues. I know there is work underway in terms of a study. There were some dollars identified under the Build Canada money. I don’t know the results of that work and I don’t know at this point what’s being brought forward.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand there is planning work underway, but possibly I’d ask Minister Michael McLeod if he wanted to just speak to that project on the Aklavik project, what’s happening with the gravel source in Aklavik.

In the normal course of events that is what the plan will be. But if the Member will recollect, when we came forward to brief committee in September it was basically in the concept stage that we thought that we could reorder the capital planning process, identify $20 million a year over three years with a proposed list of projects. The commitment was that while it was coming in after or at the same time as the capital planning process was being approved and we hadn’t had a chance to look at this collectively that we would, for the first go around, come back during this particular budgeting...

Mr. Speaker, I have a return to written question asked by Mr. Abernethy on February 20, 2009, regarding a meeting to discuss the NGO funding policy. The Department of Municipal and Communities Affairs and the Financial Management Board Secretariat have developed a resource booklet titled Program Guide for Managers: Funding for Non-Government Organizations. The need for this booklet was driven by the valuable work done by Volunteer NWT’s Finance Action Group. Their report both highlighted the need to ensure NGOs had clear and thorough information about current GNWT funding policies and flagged...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I indicated when we previously met, we are of course looking for the advice of committee and Members. This is a new process, this is the first year. So we had the discussion over do you budget estimates into your actual budget or do you wait for them to come back.

I would point out, as well, that the growth of government is probably the lowest it’s been in this budget than it’s been in many a year, thanks to the work that was done in the last budget and carried forward to this budget. We’re very sensitive to trying to control our costs, especially now where we expect...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are opportunities over the life of the fund for communities to apply for assistance in a number of project areas. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is one of the cases where the department was instructed to come back once the funds had been expended and there was an exact amount. The costs aren’t the same from Collective Agreement time to Collective Agreement time, nor are the folks that we hire to be negotiators or the costs that they may charge. I’ll maybe ask Minister McLeod, responsible for HR, to speak a bit more about the process. Thank you.

Municipal and Community Affairs will be before this House soon. The issues about the type of arrangement, the funding arrangements, the formulas, which I believe are very generous, are there for review. We have built a 9 percent increase into the budget. We have given, though the Member may say it is neither here nor there, 16 cents a litre. I would suggest the pressure we were getting from the Members themselves about bringing that price down would indicate that 16 cents a litre is still nothing that could be sneezed at in this day and age and that we are constantly looking at ways to be as...