Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Supplementary Appropriation No. 1 (Infrastructure Expenditures) 2009-2010. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I believe at this point the Minister responsible for Public Works and Transportation can provide some more detail.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t have that information with me to be able to say with any certainty.

Out of that $20 million a year, this is $2.5 million. We have about $6.9 million that looks at a whole host of other projects. For the first year, Lutselk’e, Whati hydro, that Fort Providence transmission line, Bear River feasibility, natural gas conversion feasibility, the Hydro Strategy, in-stream hydro projects, we’re looking for some money for the electricity review. We have another $3.8 million for different biomass and wind energy in the Beaufort-Delta. We’ve tried to be as comprehensive as possible. As well, we have the $3 million a year for the commercial power subsidy for the small...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I give notice that on Thursday, March 12, 2009, I will move that Bill 16, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2009-2010, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, FMB does say no with some regularity. They have a fairly tight hand on the purse strings, but we know that there are pressures in program areas that are important to all of us. The issue of the business planning process we started with capital planning, last year we split it out for the first time and I agree with the Member where we want to look at how things are working and if we have to adjust and fine tune and we should be looking to do that before we get too far into spring. Thank you.

I will refer the question to Minister Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. According to the information that we’ve provided, there was $120,000 on corporate human resource services; employee services for $600,000; for increased costs associated with employee medical travel and dental costs, $400,000 for that; and addressing the pay and benefits backlog, $300,000, and they have $80,000 put towards the Human Resource Strategy and policy. Thank you.

I would like to point out, as well, that the majority of this money is program money that is spent at the community level. The money for fuel and utilities is for the cost across the government in all of the communities, not just headquarters. We have built in the $60 million to try to do alternate energy to lower cost of living. We have a 9 percent increase for communities. I recognize the issue by the concern raised by the Member, but we have to keep in mind that a lot of this money is program money for communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, over the last five years this is the second lowest amount of supps if you look at the list that we gave you, including the $15 million that was already apportioned out. I think ‘04-05 was probably the year that was slightly lower. Every other year was significantly higher.

I take the Member’s comments. We’ve had this discussion about the process and it’s not surprises so much as we targeted areas where we know that there’s costs we may not control, and rather than build in estimates into the budget, which can be imprecise, the direction has been to...