So be it. I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance if he would like to present some opening remarks.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to present the Department of Finance’s main estimates for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

The department’s 2010-11 Main Estimates propose O and M expenditures of $76.528 million. This represents an increase of $1.658 million or 2 percent from the 2009-10 Main Estimates.

In October 2009 the Department of Finance released its Strategic Action Plan 2009-2012, which provides multiyear direction for the department. The plan includes strategic initiatives flowing from two overarching strategic priorities, these being fiscal sustainability and modern management. These strategic priorities are critical to the long-term success of the GNWT and flow to departmental initiatives and action items.

The Department of Finance will continue the GNWT’s longer term broad-based initiative to modernize government management in order to better respond to changing expectations and priorities. Key activities aimed at identifying and addressing areas for improvement within the current management framework include:

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investing $200,000 to continue the renewal of the Knowledge Management Strategy;

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modernizing the Financial Administration Act, associated financial policies, procedures and directives;

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continuing to implement and maintain the new financial information system, SAM, by investing $338,000 for incremental support costs and an additional $595,000 in amortization expense to reflect a full year of service for SAM;

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investing $125,000 in one-time funding to

complete the planning, design and transition activities for the implementation of a financial shared services and procurement model;

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investing $195,000 to implement the GNWT’s Strategic Security Plan, which will help the GNWT to protect the government’s electronic information assets;

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modernizing the Petroleum Products Tax Act; and

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implementing an electronic records and

document management system.

Also reflected in the department’s proposed budget is an increase of $912,000 in collective bargaining increases.

The department’s budget includes $37.122 million in contribution funding for the NWT Housing Corporation. The department has no direct authority over this contribution funding, other than providing the corporation with its operating cash flow.

As the GNWT’s lead revenue department, the department will address fiscal sustainability through initiatives that will enable the GNWT to generate long-term economic social and environmental returns that will over time increase the Territory’s self-reliance. The Department of Finance’s revenues are projected to total $1.236 billion, which is approximately 91 percent of the total GNWT revenues being forecast for 2010-11. The department will undertake a number of revenue-related initiatives, including:

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following recent public consultations, develop a proposal for changes in the NWT tax mix to better balance the tax burden;

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continuing to participate in discussions on

devolution and resource revenue sharing; and

•

releasing a public discussion paper on the

establishment of an NWT Heritage Fund.

For the 2010-11 fiscal year the Department of Finance’s main estimates include a total staffing complement of 108 positions, 99 in headquarters and nine in the regions. This is a net increase over the previous fiscal year of one term position resulting from the Refocusing Government’s Strategic Initiative to implement a financial shared services and procurement model. That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. We’ll open the floor up now for general comments. Or actually, no, Mr. Minister, did you want to bring in some witnesses?

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister, and we’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses in. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Mr. Sergeant-at-Arms. Thank you, Mr. Minister, and if I could just maybe have you introduce your staff for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of Finance; and Mr. Jamie Koe, acting director of policy and planning. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister, and welcome, Ms. Melhorn and Mr. Koe, to our proceedings. We’ll open the floor up to general comments on the Department of Finance main estimates. Any general comments? Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, I wanted to ask the Minister in regard to his comments on page 2 of 2. He mentioned something about releasing a public discussion paper on establishment of an NWT Heritage Fund. Does the Minister have a date as to when this is going to be released to the public for discussion and what type of plan he has to have a discussion with the public on this? Is it going to be through various forums?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The intention is to table the document either this Friday or coming Monday, March 1st .

Thank you.

So the Minister is going to table a document on March the 1st and then this triggers

a process where there’s going to be public discussion now in the Northwest Territories as to the establishment of an NWT Heritage Fund. Is it six months of discussion with the public or is it going to be something like the other discussion papers we’ve had regarding utility companies? So I guess I wanted to see as to when does the Minister

see this discussion on the establishment of the Heritage Fund being concluded or to move to another phase?

The intention is to have a consultation and feedback period until April 30th . The intention, as I indicated in the budget

address, assuming that there will be constructive feedback and consensus of this Legislature, that we’d have a bill before this House for their consideration and passage in the life of this Assembly. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I’d like to say that’s good news and I hope we see the bill sooner than later. I wanted to ask the Minister about the uncertainty of some of the initiatives that are happening in the North regarding infrastructure on projects. Does that, from a Minister’s point of view, the department’s point of view, throw some type of wrench into our financial fiscal outlook or framework in terms of what you’ve presented us here? Is it possible that you could be presenting something totally different in two or three months down the road in terms of what you have before us here? Thank you.

As a matter of course and practice we are always reviewing our fiscal situation and the Members are aware of some of the challenges that are out there. We’ve had our discussions and we’ve laid out some of the potential scenarios and we’re going to continue to do that. I’m confident that regardless of what challenges arise before us, that we’ll be able to make the right collective decisions to make sure that we maintain the level of service that our constituents now have. Thank you.

Thank you. I, too, also want to let the Minister know that I want to ensure that we have good sound footing in the finances in terms of challenges that we have to acknowledge and to deal with, but at the same time I want to ensure that what’s before us here, this is probably the best-case scenario of all the assessments of our finances with a number of sunsets. You know, we heard from the Department of Health and Social Services in terms of their sunsets of some of the programs that the federal government is not going to fund anymore and at the same time we’re going to provide some pretty valuable health services and that has to come from somewhere. So for us to keep on going, it would mean that we have to do business in a different way than we’re used to. So more of a comment to the Finance Minister, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate the Member’s comment as it pertains to sunsets or potential sunsets and any action or response from the federal government in terms of continuing on some of the health programs. We’re going to be, of course, monitoring that. We’re not going to know

that until the federal budget comes out in early March. We’re already doing some initial planning, as the Members are aware, to try to accommodate the worst-case scenario, which would be that the sunset holds and there is no further funding. However, we will keep the Members apprised as often as we have to going forward with the various challenges that are before us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Yakeleya.

No, thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Are there any further general comments on the Department of Finance? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to say that I appreciate the two overarching strategic priorities of fiscal sustainability and modern management, both of which I think we’re failing in and I think it’s very appropriate to give much more attention to. I think we’re sort of working on the grace of God, really, and financially skirting our debt wall and we’re very vulnerable there. I will be interested in more details on that. The modern management, as well, I am wondering if that includes in the modernization of the Financial Administration Act an improvement of the sole-source contracting procedures that is causing a lot of grief.

Also, I believe we had talked about reviewing the Petroleum Products Tax Act and I don’t see that. Oh, I see here, it’s mentioned here as modernizing Petroleum Products Tax Act. I am happy to see that. I would be happy in any of the Minister’s perspectives on what modernizing that act means. Certainly, I know we are out of date with a number of things. For example, we are missing natural gas. We don’t tax natural gas used for power generation and that’s a big hole.

Finally, again, I may have missed it. I was out of the House for a minute there, but I’m wondering where we’re at with carbon pricing. I know the public has been mentioning that more and more and I think it would be good to get some good research and preparatory work going if we are going to do something during the life of this Assembly.

So I will just keep it brief at that, but I just wanted to mention those things. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Minister.