Michael Miltenberger

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.”

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point there are no new costs attributed to the project. We’re looking at managing the project with the existing funds. As the work and the new direction of the recommendations are acted on, then we’ll be looking at it to see if there are any further costs that haven’t already been anticipated.

Mr. Speaker, the Power Corporation is a Crown corporation, ostensibly arm’s length, but it has, in fact, evolved into a much closer working relationship, very similar to the working relationship that we have with the Housing Corporation. It is a vehicle of our social and economic policy and energy policy and sits at the table with other deputies. Comes to all the high level meetings with the chairman of the board and the president to look at how do we move on things like the expansion of hydro, how do we look at generation issues, handling things like the installation of the solar array in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Of course, if there is an interest by committee to have a chat or discussion or meeting with Finance or a briefing on rules for transfer between O and M and capital, while it is done and there are rules and ways to do it, we would be happy to have that discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The records indicate $190,000. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s a shared interest. The private sector, as well, is struggling, in many cases, to find staff and people and get people to stay to avoid having fly-in/fly-out, which is why we’ve started this working group with the Chamber of Mines, the Chamber of Commerce and the three diamond mines to talk about what can we do together, how do we work together. Things like going south jointly to go to trades fairs and those types of things. We’re working with our own departments, Education for example, to really take advantage of this Express Entry Program that the federal...