Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the $13 million that you see there is the annual payment to the partnership that built the fibre optic line, and the other figure you see is the amortization of that amount. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

No. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It was just a comment, and we'll take it as that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. Those are not approved projects, so we do not account for them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are familiar with the reports and we are just going through them and looking at their contents and doing analysis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can commit to having the department do a review and see how many more people might take it, some statistics if we raised it to $100,000. Again, you know, this is going to be another cost driver. Another one of the reasons we need to look at trying to generate more of our own source revenues is so that we can pay for particular programs like this, but we will do the work, and, once we get the data available or get the analysis done, we will sit down with committee and have a discussion with them on the way forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As we go through the business plans, the next set of business plans, we'll have some information for Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I have often, I will inform a meeting with the Minister of Finance again, I will make an argument. They take it back to their Cabinet, and they can do it through an order in council, is my understanding. So they can make it happen fairly quickly, depending on the time that we go down there and present our case. I do not have the exact timeline for that. We are just working on it now. As soon as I do, I will inform Members. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I take the Member's point, and I have had this question, I think, the last two budgets we have gone through. I will make the commitment that the balance of the Heritage Fund will show up in the business plans and the main estimates. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we will use this section to deal with some of the issues they have, but we will bill them back. Thank you.

When you first discuss issues with the federal Ministers, initially they're not receptive to them. You just have to convince them as to why you need it, and then you get support from the folks in the Northwest Territories. We've had those discussions. I can't say whether or not he was receptive, but we make a case and they look at it based on the case we make and make a decision based on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.