Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here today to present Supplementary Appropriation No. 2, 2010-2011 (Infrastructure Expenditures). This document

outlines a request for $165,439 million for capital investment expenditures in the 2010-11 fiscal year.

This supplementary appropriation seeks authority to record the work completed on the Deh Cho Bridge Project and to record and use the remaining cash available to complete the project.

This appropriation authority is required as the project will now be recorded directly as a GNWT asset in our financial statements. Up to now, the project has been recorded on the GNWT’s consolidated financial statements. However, by assuming direct responsibility for the project, as well as for the project debt, the GNWT will now be recording the project on our non-consolidated statements and project expenditures will now be made from the GNWT’s consolidated revenue account.

In other words, the project will now be a GNWT capital project and will be recorded as if it had been one from the start. The project cash will now form part of the consolidated revenue account and thus requires the Department of Transportation to seek authority to draw it down in order to pay for phase 2 of the project. This is similar in process to the way our government flows money from the federal government for infrastructure projects such as Building Canada projects and the recently approved funding for the project description reports on the Mackenzie Valley Highway, where the department required an appropriation to draw down federal funding.

As Members are aware, the lenders in the Deh Cho Bridge Project have notified the GNWT that they are exercising their rights to oblige our government to assume the project debt. Because assuming this debt could result in the GNWT exceeding our borrowing authority, we have sought federal authority for this debt. Federal Finance Minister Flaherty has committed to accommodate the GNWT’s ability to manage fiscal pressures within a borrowing limit, prompted by the short-term requirements associated with the Deh Cho Bridge Project. This will likely take the form of a temporary increase in the borrowing limit. Discussions with Finance Canada on the specifics are ongoing.

The Minister of Transportation will be joining me at the witness table. I am prepared to review the details of the supplementary appropriation document. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.