Michael Miltenberger

One of the big areas has been on the preparedness with emergency firefighters and extra crews that were trained and standing by and ready to roll that were there right from the start last year. The year before last we were gearing up just because of the unprecedented nature and trying to recruit emergency firefighters. We had an amazing response, but this year we’ve kept it in place. We’ve worked on the training, so we now have a cadre of trained emergency firefighters. We’ve worked a lot on our communications. We’ve had the benefit this year of the weather that worked in our favour. We’ve had...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We anticipate that this is the final supp that will be required. Thank you.

As we speak, the folks will be pulling together a package that we will put on the table and provide to committee members. It will be part of the record on a go-forward basis. We will do what we can for last year, but we’ll do this year for sure. I will commit to that. We’ll make it part of the record that that will be the expectation for all further supplementary or special warrant appropriations. Thank you.

I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016. This document proposes an increase of $50.7 million in operations expenditures for the 2015-2016 fiscal year.

The more significant items are:

1.

a total of $24.5 million for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the increased costs incurred during the 2015-2016 fire season. Twenty point nine million dollars of this amount was approved by a special warrant in June 2015 and is now being included in the supplementary request.

2.

$22.1 million for the Department of Finance to contribute funding...

Thank you. Yes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The issue of buying in US dollars anything of significance, both gentlemen at the table here have a combined experience of over 50 years, and this is the first situation of this nature that either one, with that extensive experience, has experienced or been involved in. I have much less experience in the finance field but could add a few years to that as well.

As the deputy minister indicated, we are taking the steps with one of the institutions and a facility to be ready, should that need arise, and we’re going to, of course, be prepared, and this has now been...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The whole practice of hedging is a separate, highly volatile profession of its own, and if we could, with any certainty, know which way things were going to go as hedgers, as has been pointed out, I’d probably be sitting in lavish luxury somewhere in maybe another locale. Be that as it may, we don’t normally buy a lot of things in US funds and, no, we did not hedge, buy any dollars to hedge on this. Yes, we are looking at how we could possibly ameliorate that impact. But I would also point out that earlier in this process we came before the Legislature and we moved some...

Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will make it on the record here that we will provide that information. We will be monitoring closely the system designed with checks and balances to ensure compliance and a high level of implementation. We will commit to share that with committee now and on an ongoing basis.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We are not that prescient that we can foretell what the exchange rate will be by next year, which is why we’re going to set up this facility to help us try to hedge and hopefully pick appropriately as we’re hedging what exactly it is we’re going hedge and how much. So I appreciate the Member’s concern. We can tell you what we’ve spent to date with the actual cost of what we came forward with, the money we saved by advancing the project last year to the money that it cost us with the exchange rate drop. All combined, that money has been paid. We can tell you to the penny...