Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I stand today to present the 2009-10 budget to this House and the people of the Northwest Territories. I would like to thank my Cabinet colleagues, the standing committees, and all the other groups and individuals, for the input and advice they have provided.

We are gathered here in a time of unprecedented global economic turmoil that continues to worsen daily. Our collective task in the NWT is to work together during these difficult times, to meet the many challenges and seize the opportunities as they present themselves.

Last year’s budget noted the storm warnings on the economic...

There are some proposals that I understand are there. I’m not aware of any firm one currently being considered at this point. The intention, as we have moved from the passive to an active fund, is to make sure that the policies and procedures that used to guide that passive approach are updated to reflect a more active role we want to take, and the fact that the money that’s there, how do we make sure that it’s best put to use in a secure way that’s going to make sure that we can repay what the federal government is going to give us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This fund is a federal Immigrant Investor Fund. We have an agreement with the federal government. We have agreed to back that guarantee, all the money in that fund. So any money that we lend, we have to be prepared to repay. This is not a grant fund. This is not a low-risk, low-value fund. We’re accountable for every cent. So we have the opportunity here. Due diligence indicated to us that it was, in fact, a tolerable risk that we’re prepared to take, given these tight economic times. The value added that it brought to the Territory is a good investment: $13 million in...

Mr. Speaker, Discovery came to us with a request for $34 million. I understand, from what the Member is telling us, the Gwich’in offered 10. Discovery Air made a choice and they came to us with their proposal which we then considered. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, Discovery Air came to us with an unsolicited proposal. We dealt with the company that came to us. We did not, nor do I think it was appropriate for us to try to sort out whatever things may have been going on outside of our purview in terms of other interests, other financing. We were aware the general credit market was very, very tight, that there was time constraints. The level of detail that the Member is asking about the Gwich’in and their plans and all the other possible players were not something that came to our table. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of ENR has been supportive in the department of setting up green teams. Over in the office building where they work there is a very dedicated, interested group of people who are currently working on all the opportunities that are available in terms of savings with paper, with copiers, with machines being left on, with recycling. I’m fully supportive of that and I’m sure the other Minister is. Maybe it’s a situation of having departments working with the Members to encourage that type of formation. They brown bag it at lunch. I think sometimes we help cover their lunch...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, it is not. We have made a commitment to work with all of the other stakeholders through the round table that I have set up and we have indicated that we want to put other issues on the table. I have indicated today, as well, of interest in pursuing the process to take a broad look at the way we do our taxes and, as well, we will work through the departments for feedback and recommendations. But there is no government-wide employee committee that I am aware of. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Opportunities Fund is under the oversight of the Minister of ITI, but this fund was structured very specifically back in 2003 in its passive form. The criteria set, the government made a decision to put deputies on there when we were approached with this unsolicited proposal and given the economic circumstance. At that point FMB decided to play an active role. In this case, we made the decisions right away, the committee and the appropriate departments did a lot of the groundwork in conjunction with the consultants that were brought in, but the decisions were made...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will confirm that Mayor Miltenberger from Hay River was with me and that he did want to go down and pay a quick courtesy call to the Member, who wasn’t there and he left her a message. I think the rest is assumption on the Member’s part. The news of that motion was all over the place. The word was out that there was something afoot. There were calls received from High Arctic up in the North. People had heard already, so she has made some fairly damning accusations against the mayor; making some very strong allegations about the contempt.

Mr. Speaker, the funds that previously existed -- Aurora I and II, I understand -- had a more arm’s-length board structure. In this case, given the passive nature of the fund, we will take a look at the structure as well as the move of adjusting the policies that are there for the passive approach, bringing them into line with the reactive approach. The issue of the board structure has not been finally dealt with. We do have the current structure at this point to keep us going in the interim. Thank you.