Clause 2.

Thank you, committee. To the bill as a whole?

Does committee agree that Bill 10 is ready for third reading.

Thank you, committee. Bill 10 is now ready for third reading. I would like to thank you, Mr. Minister, Ms. Lavoie and Mr. Cleveland. Mahsi.

Thank you, committee. I would now like to draw your attention to Bill 17 and ask the Minister responsible for Bill 17 to please introduce the bill.

Mr. Chairman, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 4, 2006-2007 requests authority for additional appropriations of $13.486 million for operations expenditures for departmental over-expenditures in the 2006-2007 fiscal year.

The requests include:

• • $10.395 million to increase the accrual for environmental liabilities related to the estimated costs to remediate NWT contaminated sites that are the responsibility of the GNWT, pursuant to Public Sector Accounting Board requirements; and
• • $3.091 million for over-expenditures in the Department of Health and Social Services related to higher than anticipated costs for out-of-territory hospital and physician services, the Extended Health Benefits Program, and the Metis Health Benefits Program, pursuant to the authorization process for over-expenditure of appropriations in the Financial Administration Act.

That concludes my opening remarks. I am prepared to answer any questions Members may have.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. I would now like to ask if you would like to bring in witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, yes.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Does committee agree to bring in witnesses?

Thank you. We will bring in witnesses, Mr. Sergeant-at-Arms.

Thank you, committee. Thank you, Mr. Minister. If you could, would you please introduce your witnesses?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to my right is the secretary to the FMB, Mr. Mark Cleveland; and to my left is Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, director of budget evaluation.

Thank you, Minister Roland, and thank you, committee. Before we deal with the preamble of the clauses, we will go to general comments.

Does committee agree?

Before we go to the schedule, the preamble and the clauses, we will go to the detail first. So if I could draw your attention, please, to page 5, Financial Management Board Secretariat, operations expenditures, Financial Management Board Secretariat, not previously authorized, government accounting $10.395 million. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the need to book this amount in excess of $10 million has been well explained and well justified. If we know we may have a liability or a future liability or debt, we should flag it now and make sure that it's recorded for openness and accountability.

The detail in this area here is entirely environmental. It relates almost entirely to known or potential contamination from tank farms, fuel facilities, Mr. Chairman. This is not an uncommon situation all over North America, all over

the world. The question I wanted to ask was, as our government took over tank farms, airports and barge landings and various other facilities over the years from the federal government, from the former Northern Canada Power Commission, potentially even from the RCMP from some of the churches, to what extent have we determined that we are actually the ones liable for these potential costs and is there any historic or contingent liability that could, or should, be assessed where a previous owner or previous government may have been the ones who have built the tank farm and had some responsibility for its contamination, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will give you what I am familiar with and then I will go to Mr. Cleveland for more detail. As we looked to properties that have been transferred to the Government of the Northwest Territories in previous years by other governments or as we purchased properties for our use, we have done estimates on the potential liabilities and more, at least to where I'm familiar with, negotiate that in a transfer in recognition of that. For more details how that's happened, what may have happened prior to that, I'll go to Mr. Cleveland.

Thank you, Minister Roland. I'll now go to Mr. Cleveland.