Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Opportunities Fund is under the oversight of the Minister of ITI, but this fund was structured very specifically back in 2003 in its passive form. The criteria set, the government made a decision to put deputies on there when we were approached with this unsolicited proposal and given the economic circumstance. At that point FMB decided to play an active role. In this case, we made the decisions right away, the committee and the appropriate departments did a lot of the groundwork in conjunction with the consultants that were brought in, but the decisions were made by the Financial Management Board in this case. Thank you.

The Opportunities Fund itself is a substantial amount of money, in the neighbourhood initially of $128 million. A decision like that by Cabinet to go from a passive investment vehicle to something which is very high risk, I think that’s a decision and a question that should have been asked of all Members of this House. There is a number of Members on this side of the House that have some good ideas about how to stimulate our own northern economy and perhaps even borrowing some of the money ourselves and looking at our own stimulus package. You know, we never had the chance, and like I said, the Minister showed up, and the reason I am asking the Minister of Finance this is because FMB made the decision, even though the Minister of ITI --and ITI oversees the Opportunities Fund; the decision was made by FMB, which is chaired by the Finance Minister. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance, did the society and the senior officials supply FMBS with a recommendation to pursue this risky investment and where is that recommendation, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

There was extensive work done. The due diligence part was done through FMB -- FMBS sorry -- and the Department of Finance. There is an extensive file, there is some due diligence that we shared, there was ongoing negotiations, there is a file. We recognize that there is risk. We didn’t think it was a high enough risk to preclude us, given the economic circumstances, from not making the loan. We looked at the jobs, the economy, the value-added as well as the $13 million in interest payments. So, yes, there is a file, there was recommendations brought in, the assessment of the due diligence, the level of risk, all the revenue projections, the health of Discovery Air, and the final decision was made by FMB.

I would like to ask the Minister of Finance, the due diligence, as I have been told, was done by the company itself. I am not sure to what level FMB did its own due diligence on this, but the people I have talked to -- and myself, I am not an accountant, but looking at the financial statements, unaudited financial statements of that company dated October 31st of last year, they are

$141 million in debt and I don’t know how their cashflow projections are going to enable them to pay any money back at the end of four years. They are in an awful lot of trouble, Mr. Speaker. Again, I want to find out from the Finance Minister, it sounds like this was a political decision and to heck with the evidence, and maybe the next phone call I will be making here is to the Auditor General of Canada.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. I didn’t hear a question there. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

My questions are directed to the Minister of Finance. I would like to go back to my Member’s statement in October of 2008 when I said, “We need a committee of GNWT employees, composed of only front-line and middle management staff who represent all departments and agencies, a committee which reports directly to MLAs of the Finance Minister, and the job of this committee would be to provide suggestions to reduce our costs.” I would like to ask the Minister, at this point, is this committee in place, and if not, why not? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, it is not. We have made a commitment to work with all of the other

stakeholders through the round table that I have set up and we have indicated that we want to put other issues on the table. I have indicated today, as well, of interest in pursuing the process to take a broad look at the way we do our taxes and, as well, we will work through the departments for feedback and recommendations. But there is no government-wide employee committee that I am aware of. Thank you.

Thanks to the Finance Minister for that clear answer. It is, unfortunately, not the answer that I was hoping that I would hear. I would like to explain to the Minister and perhaps to anyone who is listening, and to you, Mr. Speaker, there are employees who certainly have valuable ideas that would work in the front lines. They experience all kinds of situations where they can see that expenses can be reduced, where waste can be terminated. I would like to ask the Minister if he does not agree with those sentiments. Does he not feel that our front-line staff have the opportunity to provide valuable suggestions to reduce our expenses and keep our costs down?

The Member is asking for my opinion and I would be happy to provide that. There is a valuable role for employees. As we forge ahead with this budget into the rough waters that are there economically, and the darkening skies economically, I will pursue with thinking outside the box -- as has been recommended by Mr. Abernethy -- and we can revisit those issues. There used to be a committee in the days of old and the value of that could be reviewed. So it is not that we don’t think it is valuable, it is just that at this point it has not reached an agenda. Thank you.

Thanks again to the Finance Minister. I struggle with the answer that yes, it is valuable, but no, we are not going there. I would like to remind the Minister that given a very small piece of rope, I think our employees would provide us with a very large gain. So, no, they wouldn’t hang themselves. But I would like to know from the Minister when we might see that our employees might be given the opportunity, even if they form this staff committee by themselves or if they are certainly given licence to go ahead and make suggestions, when might we see a concrete date for that to happen. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of ENR has been supportive in the department of setting up green teams. Over in the office building where they work there is a very dedicated, interested group of people who are currently working on all the opportunities that are available in terms of savings with paper, with copiers, with machines being left on, with recycling. I’m fully supportive of that and I’m sure the other

Minister is. Maybe it’s a situation of having departments working with the Members to encourage that type of formation. They brown bag it at lunch. I think sometimes we help cover their lunch. I’ve met with them on a couple of occasions. I think it’s a very valuable resource. It does exist. As keeping with Mr. Bromley’s suggestion of keeping it small, keeping it local, maybe that’s the approach we should be considering. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I commend the Minister of ENR for setting in place this green team and that particular initiative. My request is going beyond that. We need a committee that goes across all departments, that is representing the front line, the front end of our staff. I would like to ask the Minister… Sorry. I’ll go back again. I would like to say to the Minister that, yes, other departments have to follow the lead of ENR, but I think that in addition we need to have a committee that is broadly based across all departments. I would ask him again what date that might be initiated. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I will commit to bringing the issue to the FMB or the Cabinet, whatever’s the most appropriate for the initial discussions. I will commit to report back to the Member before the end of this session. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement with regard to the Dehcho Connection and Highway No. 1 and No. 7 to the Minister of Transportation. Many documents have been brought towards the work with the federal government. We’ve got the Connecting Canada document that went to the federal ministry, as well as the Dehcho Connection as part of the National Highway Strategy. I would like to ask the Minister what has been done to work with the federal transportation to find us some resources to build up Highway No. 1 and No. 7. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I believe the Deh Cho connection was spearheaded by ITI and we’re certainly trying to do our part to promote and help out with this program that’s been in place

for some time. The issue of highways across the Territories has been on the forefront for many of our Members as our roads continue to hit their mid-life retrofit needs. Highway No. 7 is no different. Highway No. 7. In fact, it might be a highway that certainly needs more attention. It was built many years ago and it requires an upgrade and new construction, as we all know now. Last summer we certainly had a lot of problems with excess weather and drainage problems that led to having additional investment in that area. We have brought this forward. We have included it in our plans for the federal government and we have targeted some dollars to improve the structure of the road and also to look at some of the problem areas. Thank you.

I know that in the federal budget when they mentioned the highway systems in the Northwest Territories, of course, they mentioned the Yellowknife bypass road, but to the discern of my constituents I think our highway system should have been mentioned. I’d just like to question the strategy that the Minister had with the federal government in that regard. Just saying there, Mr. Speaker.

I’d like to know how much work has been done in this budget towards speaking with… Sorry. The resources for highways No. 1 and No. 7. In particular, I’ve been always pressing for working towards the chipseal of highways No. 1 and No. 7. Have they been looking at that in this budget? Have we had any discussions in the capital planning process, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’m struggling to answer the Member’s questions. He’s asking questions about the acceleration of the Building Canada Plan where we do have a number of projects, and he’s asking me to disclose what has been discussed with the federal government. That has not come before the House. Our budget has just been introduced today and has not been on the floor of this House, so I can’t really start discussing issues and projects that are in the budget at this point. I’d certainly be glad, to when we come to the portion of the budget presentation that involves Transportation. I can assure the Member that we’ve had certainly a lot of discussion with the federal government on highways; Highway No. 7. We’ve also had a lot of discussion internally looking at the different issues that are challenging Highway No. 7 and highways across the North.

Thanks to the Minister for detailing this. He’s kind of limited in all the answers. I just, once again, want to reiterate the concern of Nahendeh residents that working towards chipseal of the Deh Cho connection is a priority. First and foremost, I’d like to see that on the long-term capital plan, Mr. Speaker, if the Minister can address that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, our first priority in the reconstruction of most of our highways is to strengthen and reconstruct the road base; have that done on our roads and then we can start focusing on the secondary measures such as dust suppressants, including chipseal. Thank you.