Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Premier. That’s a good expectation. I expect that we won’t have a groundswell of support against devolution. I think there is general acceptance and people are very happy about devolution. I guess if there’s no opportunity for people to suggest changes to the agreement and if the Premier is willing to put it to a vote for Members, can I ask the Premier why he was not willing to put it to a vote through a plebiscite to the general public?

So just to follow up, this is not activity. I gather this is, I think this is in the Sahtu area or from Wrigley and up, but I gather that this is not an activity or the activity in that area could not be foreseen when we were doing the budget. Is that correct?

I want to thank the Premier for that very thorough response. I would hope that might maybe be posted somewhere so that people will be able to go and read it, if they haven’t heard it here.

The Premier has been very clear. Several times he has said it’s a done deal. I think that’s where I am finding it a bit conflicting. If it is a done deal, why are we bothering to go out and consult?

I’d like to know from the Minister, then, just for clarification, for those people who are not represented by an Aboriginal government, there’s public engagement. If I have a conflicting opinion, if I wish to see...

That’s good. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What a historic day yesterday. Devolution has arrived after a long and a hard-fought battle. That we’ve reached this point is wonderful. I am in full support of devolution and very happy. It’s not something I thought I would see during my tenure here at the Legislative Assembly. I offer congratulations to the Premier, the Aboriginal governments and all the hardworking GNWT negotiations staff, past and present, who brought us to this point.

Today I’d like to follow up on an exchange that I had last week during budget deliberations with the Premier, and recent comments by...

Thanks to the Minister. It’s good to hear that we’re making a base adjustment. I’m just wondering, when we give approval for appropriation of funds, basically after the fact the way we are doing here from what it sounds like, is there a financial impact on us? Are we spending this money and getting reimbursed at a later date? Are we paying interest costs or whatever? Basically, is it costing us money to be out this $4.7 million? Thank you.

That pretty much answers my questions. I’m done. Thank you.

Thanks for the information from the Minister. We’re almost at $19 million in the hole, so to speak. I appreciate that we have unforeseen costs periodically, but I would have thought with a reserve of $10 million and we’re now $19 million in the hole, that means we overshot our budget by $29 million. Are there specific large items that we can reference that caused us to be so much in the hole or is this an accumulation of a number of smaller things that have added up to this deficit of $19 million?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a general question with regard to all of these expenditures. These were unforeseen in this budget year, that’s why they’re here. So to the Minister, I understand that we have a contingency fund or we have a reserve for both infrastructure and for operations budgets. So a couple of questions. What is our reserve for the 2012-13 budget year for operations and how do all the items in this particular supplementary appropriation affect our reserve fund? Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Aumond, for the explanation. That’s all, Mr. Chair.