Thank you, Madam Chair. Having had the capital budget in front of us for two minutes
here now, I’d like to start off by just saying that I note that $1 million had been budgeted to complete the required planning for the Inuvik to Tuk all-weather road. I’d like to ask the Minister what has been spent to date to confirm that this will complete the planning for that project mentioned in his opening remarks.
I want to compliment the Minister and the government for establishing this Capital Asset Retrofit Fund. It’s something we’ve talked about for a number of years. It provides for energy efficiency upgrades to upgrade existing GNWT buildings and I’m happy to see that in there based on savings as a result of the previous projects that have reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reduced our energy expenditures, provided more employment and helped develop a brand new industry in the Northwest Territories. All kudos there. I’m hoping that we can see that build as we continue the retrofits that yield these annual savings.
The Minister has noted again that our debt limit is compatible or consistent with our increasing level of annual budget. I’m curious, I wonder if the Minister would know what our annual budget was at the time that we had the $500 million debt limit imposed on us in our fiscal responsibility policy or adopted that.
That’s it for now. I haven’t had much time to look at this budget but I’ll look forward to detailed comments later.