Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Having lived through the construction of the bridge, I can assure the Member that getting it done on time has very many benefits, and preferably on budget, because the Legislature clearly takes a dim view of projects that came in over budget and over time. This particular project has been, from the start, a four-year project, with the first three years focusing where the majority of work is on the building of the embankments and the final year of the finishing and putting in the top layer of gravel. While we are attempting to accelerate the project, the intent is to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will double check that, but I understand, talking to the Member for Sahtu, that Colville Lake is very pleased with the Junior Kindergarten and is intent on keeping it operational.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

We, of course, whenever possible, share as fully as we can as a matter of practice with internal audits. There is sometimes highly sensitive, sometimes personnel information, sometimes information that may form the basis for a criminal investigation, so I am unable to commit to the request by the Member. Thank you.

I would encourage the Member to think back that we manage a $1.8 billion budget. We have supps on a regular basis and nearly 100 percent of the time, over 99 percent of the time the system works. We have an issue with this supplementary appropriation, which is a relatively small amount, as the Member said, that didn’t follow all the steps in the process, and we acknowledge that. There’s no plan to change the process because it’s a good process. There is a requirement and need to have the checks and balances and accountability to this Legislature and it’s why we’re here today laying this out...

In the seven audit projects concluded, the audit reports completed in 2013-14 made 46 recommendations. Twenty-two of the 46 audit recommendations have been implemented to date. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To err on the side of caution in making sure that we have the ability to continue to pay all our required debts and bills and make payroll and all those type of things, we’re going to put a bill on the table that’s going to request that we raise that $275 to $300 million for the short-term. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll touch on a number of items and then I’ll ask Mr. Neudorf to speak to some of the more technical issues.

As we talk about the borrowing limit, we have the soon-to-be resolved issue of the borrowing limit of the federal government to be dealt with. I can say with confidence that the borrowing limit’s going to go up. The issue that has not been determined is how much. That’s an issue that is coming to fruition here in the very near future.

This project was four years and the majority of the work was scheduled for three. We have a northern contractor that is now up and...

I apologize to the Member for not answering the question. As he was asking about short-term borrowing, my short-term memory left me there for a second and I need to get reminded by the deputy what the question was.

There was urgency to deal with the process. There was urgency to provide assurance and reassurance to the people of the Northwest Territories where there was a growing sense of urgency, demands that something had to be done and, in addition to trying to touch the bases we needed to touch, deal with the NTPC, deal with the PUB. We took all those factors into consideration and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have at the witness table Mr. Russ Neudorf, deputy minister of Transportation; Michael Aumond, deputy minister of Finance; Olin Lovely, the director of Management Board Secretariat.