Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can't speak to that. I don't have that level of detail here on the supplementary estimates document. I'm certainly happy to get back to the Member maybe with my other hat on another day. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chair, I was going to suggest that that -- what may or may not be happening on a broader and systemic scale is probably best directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services but if that's not necessarily required for this moment, then I'll not redirect it over there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, Mr. Chair, Ministers continue to be Ministers so if there is some new uncertainty, the first thing that I'm doing is phoning the Minister and asking why this isn't getting done a little faster. And so my hope is that we are not going to be in that situation. We are still projecting to be under our limit at the end of this fiscal year so we have, you know -- and then we are still -- would then beginning the April 1st year with a new appropriation. So, again, expecting to remain fine and going into the next year as well as of April 1st. It's just that we don't -- we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, with respect to any major works, they certainly do try to consider timing and availability of backups and obviously certainly at some point extreme weather. Again, with routine maintenance, Mr. Speaker, there's a concern that they've been wanting to maintain reliability so not wanting to wait. At this point, we are expecting the Taltson to be back online I think later this month, subject to confirming that. But with that, that obviously provides a pretty significant source of primary power. So, you know, again, understand the concerns and do want to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, they are sometimes quite stable but last year and this year as well, but last year in particular was the first year where knowing of the low water levels and knowing also that there had been reductions even at that point in the amount of barging that came up and the year previous, the department expected and was correct in expecting that there it would need to do some additional work. So some of the things that led to much higher than usual budgeting was that there was additional flooding being used on the portages, additional flooding on all crossings in order...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I could certainly run that number for the House and for the Member. I don't have that here. It would -- it may, again, bit of me having to sort of tea leaf what the PUB's final rate increase would necessarily be. I don't know that. I can certainly -- once that's done, we could certainly consider coming back. Obviously, that's the rule of the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is a 75/25 or 75 percent/25 percent cost share project, so $1.913 million is offset by revenues from the Government of Canada. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I think the new rate application will reflect a subsidy of $12 million over four years, and I -- again, I don't -- I believe it will say that it's then going from 24.8 down to 15. It's from the perspective of the public is where I want to add again that that's only their energy side of their bill, not the total bill, and it doesn't necessarily yet take into account that there was the increase in July. So the GRA reflects that total rate increase but from the perspective of the public, they've already seen a small increase in July, and it is not the whole bill that goes up 25 percent...

Yes, please, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Members of the accountability and oversight committee schedule the timing of the supplementary estimates reviews, and this one was scheduled for today. The PUB is already reviewing this. The $12 million was landed on, 12 over four as a number that was deemed reasonable to bring the costs down to a rate level that would, while still impactful, obviously would be one that could be managed. There was numerical consideration given to what those potential outcomes would be. You know, again, Mr. Chair, had I anticipated that that would be the questioning today or...