Michael Miltenberger

As we sit through the political bavardage of my colleague, we can clearly see he’s on a fishing expedition. We, of course, pride ourselves on complying and having good audits, Aa1 credit rating, budgets passed unanimously in this House, public accounts that meet the test, and we are going to continue to hit those standards. Thank you.

We just had a successful audit. We are going to be tabling the public accounts in the next little bit, and we fully expect to be compliant as required.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table the following three documents, entitled “Northwest Territories Species at Risk Committee Annual Report, 2013-2014;” “Conference of Management Authorities Species at Risk Annual Report, 2013-2014;” and “Northwest Territories Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program 2013-2014 Annual Report.”

We fully engage ourselves in complying with all the necessary regulations and requirements that govern us, or if we have any other kind of involvement with the senior government like the federal government, we will, of course, work to comply in those areas as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are taking all the steps necessary along with all the other departments post-devolution to make sure that we comply with all the appropriate statutes, requirements, regulations and guidelines.

It reflects that fact that last year we had more capital projects on the go in Finance and this year we have dialed it back to the $210,000 that is here before the House for the two modules that we’ve talked about. I can also get the specifics of last year’s capital, if the Member wishes, and provide that to committee.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ll agree with the Member; he’s not totally negative. But the reality is, we are going into our fourth capital plan. We are going to be, in a few months, back before the Assembly with our final O and M budget. A lot of the concerns here today, even though we’re here to talk capital, are much broader, focused on the programs and services.

The government runs… It’s a business, a complex business, on the clear guidelines and principles that govern all public government institutions: accounting, reporting and public accounts and transparency. We have a very intense system...

Every Assembly builds off of the work of the previous Assembly, and this is my fifth Assembly, as it is for you, Madam Chair, and this is a theme that is consistent through every government and Assembly I’ve been part of, and here we are today, the circumstance has changed and there are many things that we don’t control, but we are struggling to manage the money, manage our expenditures versus the revenues, the cost of living issues, the population issues, the quality of life issues. If you look at it just at the period of time we’re now in, we tend to get depressed that there’s not enough...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me the deputy minister of Finance, Mr. Mike Aumond. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Northwest Territories Power Corporation – Empowering Communities, 2014 Annual Report;” and “Northwest Territories Hydro Corporation Annual Report, 2014.”