Does committed wish to continue with Tabled Document 45-17(4)?

Thank you, committee. Opening comments, Minister Miltenberger.

I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2012-2013. This document outlines an increase of $16.417 million in operations expenditures for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

The major items included in the supplementary estimates are:

1. A total of $5.3 million for the Department of

Health and Social Services for increased costs associated with adults and children in residential care outside the Northwest Territories.

2. $4.7 million for the Department of Health and

Social Services for increased costs for the provision of health care services to non-NWT residents, which will be fully offset by recoveries from other jurisdictions for services for their residents.

3. $2.3 million for the Department of Health and

Social Services for increased costs for medical travel.

4. $1.2 million to report a special warrant approved

on December 14, 2012, for the Department of Transportation to fund incremental work for the Mackenzie Valley winter roads. The total costs associated with this work will be fully recovered from industry.

I would like to note that in total, $8 million of the $16 million supplementary appropriations request is offset by federal or other revenues.

I am prepared to review the details of the supplementary estimates document. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Miltenberger, if you’d like to join your colleagues at the witness table. General comments.

Okay, committee, if I can get you to turn to page 3 of your document, Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2012-2013. Human Resources, operations expenditures, employee services, not previously authorized, $921,000. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a general question with regard to all of these expenditures. These were unforeseen in this budget year, that’s why they’re here. So to the Minister, I understand that we have a contingency fund or we have a reserve for both infrastructure and for operations budgets. So a couple of questions. What is our reserve for the 2012-13 budget year for operations and how do all the items in this particular supplementary appropriation affect our reserve fund? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s a $10 million reserve and we’re over that. Thank you.

If the Minister could advise how much over that we are. Thank you. What is the total right now of our reserve? We are minus how much? Thank you.

Thank you. In concluding this supp currently before us, it will be $18.961 million.

Thanks for the information from the Minister. We’re almost at $19 million in the hole, so to speak. I appreciate that we have unforeseen costs periodically, but I would have thought with a reserve of $10 million and we’re now $19 million in the hole, that means we overshot our budget by $29 million. Are there specific large items that we can reference that caused us to be so much in the hole or is this an accumulation of a number of smaller things that have added up to this deficit of $19 million?

We’re going to do some base adjustments to increase the amount of the reserve. As you go through the list, as Mr. Aumond has said a number of times, we were dealing last year with flood, fire and pestilence. As well, we’ve had some significant increases on the cost for services for individuals in care for Health and Social Services.

So just one last question. I know that my experience has been that we regularly encounter extra costs for people in care, particularly

people in care down south but also physician services that we access from down south. The Minister mentioned changing the base budgets in a number of places. Is services for people in care and physician services and so on, hospitals out of the territory, are those the areas where we’re increasing base funding, or maybe can the Minister tell me what departments we are increasing base funding for?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Mr. Aumond.

That pretty much answers my questions. I’m done. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Page 3, Human Resources, operations expenditures, employee services, not previously authorized, $921,000. Total department, not previously authorized, $921,000.

Page 4, Finance, operations expenditures, deputy minister’s office, not previously authorized, $1.212 million. Total department, not previously authorized, $1.212 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question on the contribution to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Is that a similar type of support they are also receiving in Norman Wells because of the conversion of the natural gas, and what things they have to do to prepare for the conversion to other sources of energy?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger. We’ll go to Mr. Aumond.