Yes, Madam Chair.

Is committee agreed to bring the witnesses into the House?

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please escort the witnesses in?

Mr. Miltenberger, would you please introduce your witnesses?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me deputy minister of Finance, Mr. Mike Aumond, and Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, the deputy secretary to the FMB.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I will open the floor for general comments. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I welcome the Minister and his delegation from Finance here with respect to the supplementary appropriation. This topic of discussion did come up when we had discussions regarding the 2012-2013 Main Estimates, when a similar item appeared under the term “other” under the amount of $8.076 million. Maybe when we get down to it and maybe if the Minister wants to do any conclusion to summarize it here, what will be the changes down the road in how this would be predicted in future main estimates, I think would be one of those questions that we’ll need to ask, or if they want to answer at the end of general comments. Impact on future budgets I think is going to be something of interest in terms of how we’re going to deal with this. I’ll leave my general comments really brief, but in essence that’s what I’m trying to capture.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Are there any further opening comments? Mr. Miltenberger, do you wish to respond? Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Did you have anything further, Mr. Dolynny? Are we agreed we will move to detail?

Committee is just getting the document so I’ll give people a minute to get oriented. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do appreciate Mr. Aumond’s explanation here. Now that we’re in details here, can we get a more detailed explanation in terms of if this is a sliding calculator in terms of value that we’ll be seeing over the life of this bridge? What is the lifespan of this so-called long-term debt? I know it’s associated with the bond, so maybe a little bit of an explanation as to what this number and how this number will affect budgets moving forward.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Just so the record knows where we are, I’ll read the page we are on. Page 5, Transportation, capital investment expenditures, highways, not previously authorized, $8.5 million, total department, not previously authorized, $8.5 million. Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Kalgutkar.

Thank you, Mr. Kalgutkar, for that response. Interesting enough here, the mention of a non-cash adjustment and the other variable is the potential opening of this bridge in this fiscal year. Does this change how appropriations might come forward to this committee moving forward for this fiscal year of 2012-2013 in relationship to other long-term debts?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Miltenberger.

No, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the Minister for that response. So just so that we’re clear here, is this a sliding scale calculation that’s done annually? Does this decrease per year or is this a very stable adjustment that we’ll see because obviously these bonds are tied more to CPI than interest? Are we as taxpayers going to be seeing this number repeat itself or is there a declining sliding calculator that goes into this number?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Kalgutkar.

One final question to that. Has the department made a complete calculation of exactly all long-term debt costs in relationship to what we do know today, which is that $202 million? Has the department made the full calculations of how much long-term debt would be associated with this infrastructure and could that number be shared with committee?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Aumond.