With that, I don’t know; I would urge my committee members, if I can get their support, to defer this item until later.

Does that need to be in the form of a motion to defer it? Defer Transportation?

---Interjection

Okay. I’d like to ask the committee: Do you agree that we’ll defer the consideration of the interim appropriation

for the Department of Transportation until Mr. Menicoche has the answers he’s seeking to his questions?

Thank you. Okay. Moving on, then. That was Transportation. We will defer that. The next item is Industry, Tourism and Investment, which is item 12 on your schedule. Industry, Tourism and Investment, appropriation authority required, $11.909 million.

I know we didn’t ask any other Members comments on Transportation but we have deferred it. We’re on ITI and we have just said agreed, but we will go to Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m sorry; I am a little confused. I did want to know, when I look at the spending for ITI I realize it’s for a three month period but the spending for energy is $112,000. It’s an extremely puny amount compared to what we have been used to spending annually over the last four years. I’d like to know from the Minister if that is an indication of the funds that we’re going to be spending on energy projects in the next fiscal year, or is there a particular reason why this is such a small amount?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are a number of programs that have sunsetted, which is reflected here in a diminished amount.

Thanks to the Minister. I guess a follow-up question would be: Can the Minister give us any indication whether the full budget that’s coming up will continue to provide for energy projects which are either in the works or which we saw in the last Assembly as planned for future years? Will any of those be in the next budget, or are they going to be special initiatives that may need extra money that we don’t have at the moment?

The money, the last year of the $60 million four-year Energy Fund concludes at the end of March. We do not have the replacement funds for that in place at this point. There are a number of programs that were added to the base but there are a lot of sunsets. The challenge going forward coming when we get to May when the borrowing limit is cleared up and we look at what type of infrastructure investments we want to plan for one of the areas, of course in addition to the red flag capital list, is going to be the whole area of energy.

Just a comment. I would like to say that I think this is an area in which we need to be well aware that it’s one of our priorities. It’s an area which will only serve to make us more efficient over the long term. I’m glad to hear the Minister say, I think I heard him say that it’s a priority for him to try and reinstate some of the funding, the $60 million funding that we had in the last Assembly. I would encourage him and all departments to take him up on his advice and make sure that we do have a major funding for energy projects in the full budget that’s coming up in May/June.

I appreciate the Member’s comments. As a government we will be making every effort to ensure that coming forward in May/June that we have hopefully an ability to reflect some continued investment, noticeable investment in the area of energy, and our challenge will be to try to get that done.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. ITI, appropriation authority required, $11.909 million.

Next is Environment and Natural Resources, item 13. Environment and Natural Resources, appropriation authority required, $33.142 million.

Municipal and Community Affairs, item 6, appropriation authority required, $31.683 million.

Public Works and Services, item 7, appropriation authority required, $24.001 million.

Department of Justice, item 9, appropriation authority required, $26.877 million.