Madam Chair, I have one final question. Does the department have any plans of action should interest rates rise exponentially which we don’t hope? But if they do, does the department have the flexibility within the profile of investing to take advantage of interest rate fluctuations should interest rates rise appropriate during the course of any given year for investing?

Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Next I have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am very happy to see this money being submitted to the fund, contributed to the fund this year. I think the Minister would agree it’s a sort of token amount. We want to get started. Will the Minister be coming forward with a program of more significant contributions starting next year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Madam Chair, we have agreed and we are going to put in $250,000 a year. We are going to come up with the business planning process that’s starting. Again, if at the end of the day the consensus is – I’m not sure what the Member has in mind with significant – but if that is the end result of the decision of this Legislature, we will look at that. But going forward at this point, we have $250,000 a year ongoing. Thank you.

Madam Chair, the Minister raises a good point. For example, we had $2.3 million worth of diamonds alone leaving the territory in 2011, so that sort of thing indicates that resources are clearly leaving. In terms of investing in the future, the opportunity is now. I think on the area of investment, I appreciate the suggestion that that will be brought to committee. I think we would certainly want it to be an ethical investment. If there were ways to support investment in the Northwest Territories and so on, those things would be of interest. Is there a body of regulations developed for the fund or is that plan to be done? Thank you.

Madam Chair, as we indicated to Mr. Dolynny, that work is being undertaken. We will be bringing it back. I will make sure that committee has involvement in development of those regulations so that we all have confidence that we have the right structures and regulatory processes in place. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. We are on page 3. Department of Finance, operations expenditures, deputy minister’s office, not previously authorized, $250,000. Total department, not previously authorized, $250,000.

Thank you. Page 4, Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures, activity, public safety, not previously authorized, $200,000. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It was a pleasure to see this amount being reinstated into the Ground Ambulance Program due to a sunset. My question, though, to the department is not so much the fact that this has been reinstated, but the fact that these monies were somewhat challenged by communities to access, whether they were complex in nature, whether the application process was not clear. Has the department made provisions to make sure that these monies are more easily available, maybe better definitions or better accessibility protocols for community-based organizations to acquire? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Originally this money was slated to sunset because we thought this would just be a temporary program until we can work out the details for a full-blown ambulance service once we did all the work, but it was committee’s wish that we reinstate this money. We are still a little ways off from coming forward with another plan on providing a wider scale of service.

As far as the application process goes, the communities know the drill. They have a pretty good idea of how they can access this money. However, I will commit to the Member that I will do some research into the application process to see if we can have more communities accessing this money. We have three right now, I believe, and there’s still some money that we’re left. So I’m not sure why the other communities are not coming forward. Maybe there’s concern about the liability, but I’ll do some research and I will communicate with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you. Next I have Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I think this money… I think it’s a huge opportunity to expand the guidelines and parameters around communities accessing it. I think some of the concerns I heard from the fire department in Fort Simpson that usually access this fund is that the parameters are so strict that they couldn’t find a way to utilize it. They did manage to utilize it, Madam Chair, but as we go forward with the parameters, they’re so tight that the next year they have to pretty much apply for the same program and the department says, well, you already used that for that guideline already.

So it’s a huge opportunity and I think all Members on this side know that we must continue supporting our firefighting and emergency services. So I think it’s a huge opportunity and I look forward to that dialogue where we can streamline and expand the guidelines and parameters so that all of our communities can access this funding to assist their emergency services, Madam Chair. Just rather a comment; well, actually there’s the question of when can we have that discussion.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This money was put back in the budget for this year. So I’ll defer to Minister Robert C. McLeod in terms of timelines. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The earliest that we would be able to have some dialogue on this – and this would give us the summer to do some work on this – I think would

probably be this fall when all Members get back together again. So if that’s acceptable to the Members, then it’s something I will work in the department to see if we can have something put together to sit down with committee in the fall time. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much. I think that if the Minister can commit to do that, then certainly going with the old guidelines and procedures it’s just probably a non-starter right now and I think the best use of this money is once we have that discussion, then we can certainly roll it out to the communities. Thanks.

Thank you for that comment, Mr. Menicoche. Next I have Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a brief comment as well. I do support this and I’m glad to see that this amount is back in Municipal and Community Affairs. Obviously, Hay River is one of the communities that has accessed this funding in the past, and I believe we will continue to because we have an active fire department that’s interested in accessing these funds. So it is a pity that it couldn’t be more.

We do still see lots of pressures in the community of Hay River in the fire department that maybe what we see as more of a territorial issue. So the more funding that we can receive from the territorial government on ambulance and fire department and equipment would be beneficial.

I just wanted to make the fact that we are one of the communities that supported this concept and one of the communities that access this funding. So I appreciate the department putting that back in there.