Mr. Chair, so I guess this is the way they wind the clock down on me on this one. Is this money that’s being requested, the $5 million for the Tuktoyaktuk side brings it to, I guess, Source 177 is $5 million and it’s a fiscal commitment in this budget year up to March 31st . What guarantees that

money will be spent? I’m not talking about the $60 million. Thank you.

You’ve had the clear assurances from the department, from the deputy and from the Minister that the funds will be put to good use. Everything is waiting to go. The minute that this is passed and assented to, it will be starting to be put to use. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I’m running out of time, and I know that Members will be moving a motion here shortly, so not to be too far in my anticipation, but on the $5 million, I will support, but at the same time, I do want to ask more questions during the $60 million portion.

That said, I’m just concerned about the way $5 million is being asked for this late in the game because it’s in this fiscal year. Quite frankly, the reflection in getting here is we are trying to make some type of financial commitment, contract, as quickly as possible. Everybody knows it won’t be spent by this fiscal year and that will be applied forward as carry-over. In other words, where I’m going with this is, why don’t we just push it all into the new fiscal year as one budget line item? It will demonstrate, as the Minister knows very well, my continual concern about carry-overs where we give a department money they cannot spend and they accept it anyway, of course, and can’t spend it. That’s the issue, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chair, I understand and can appreciate the Member’s concern in this instance. That money will be fully committed and expended. They’re going to work on that right away and it will be committed fully as soon as it’s approved in this Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Hawkins, your time is up. Last person speaking on this subject on page 5 is Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thought I had pretty well said everything I wanted to say about this, but there is something that Minister Miltenberger has referred to numerous times now and it’s scaring me. When he says that we booked $150 million for our share of this, that’s frightening me because I don’t know how people understand or perceive that, but I’d like him to explain as Finance Minister, for the record, that nobody out there in the public should be led to believe that we have an additional $50 million over and above the $100 million that we’re talking about here now as our one-third share that’s available for this project. Already I’ve said that I’m trusting the Department of Transportation to try and bring this project in on or under target and there is already a contingency built into the $299 million.

I know where Mr. Miltenberger is coming from, but just to make sure that people understand that when we say the $150 million was booked by our government, that’s only part of a very kind of loose fiscal framework and it is not anything that’s been approved or voted on in this House. Let’s not leave people to believe that we have another $50 million out there for this project. Can I get clarification on that, please? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. For that we’ll go to Mr. Kalgutkar.

Thank you. I’d like to hear from the Finance Minister on this. Now what Mr. Kalgutkar is saying leaves me to have less confidence that somebody out there listening to this is going to think that we have another $50 million for this project. I’ll tell you, if there is another $50 million ever comes forward in a supp for this project, we’re going to take it right out of the Thebacha riding.

We need some more clarification and I want to hear from the Minister on this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize if I have caused confusion. What it means is this is borrowed money. It would be $50 million less debt. We had booked $150 million. We had budgeted $150 million because we didn’t know what the federal government was going to put in other than the $150 million. The project cost was $300 million, so for planning purposes, until we knew what the federal number was, we budgeted $150 million of our money to go towards that project until we knew what the final federal dollar was going to be. Now that we know it’s $200 million, that means we have $50 million of less debt that we’re not going to have to take on to pay for 50 percent of the project. We’re only paying for 33.5 percent. Thank you.

Thank you. Just so the people understand then, booked is something far different than budgeted. It’s not likely that there’s any such amount of money going to come forward on behalf of this project in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I’ll take that as a comment. Committee, page 5, 2012-2013 Supplementary Appropriation, No. 3, (Infrastructure Expenditures). Transportation, capital investment expenditures, highways, special warrants, $1.028 million.

Highways, not previously authorized, $10.3 million. Total department, special warrants, $1.028 million. Total department, not previously authorized, $10.3 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Committee, page 6, 2012-2013 Supplementary Appropriation, No. 3, (Infrastructure Expenditures). Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, forest management, not previously authorized, $62,000. Total department, not previously authorized, $62,000. Does committee agree?

Does committee agree that we’ve concluded consideration of Tabled Document 49-17(4), Supplementary Appropriations (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2012-2013?

Thank you. Mr. Menicoche, what is the wish of the committee?

I move that consideration of Tabled Document 49-17(4), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3,

2012-2013, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 49-17(4) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The motion is being circulated.

---Carried

Mr. Menicoche, what is the wish of committee?

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 50, Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2013-2014.

Does committee agree?