Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we can see there is a bit of a focus and trend that some of the Members are talking about and that focuses on fiscal management and responsibility specifically with our short-term borrowing issue. I heard some questions that were asked around that issue. One concern that I have is the risk that it puts our government at when we’re having all these supps being brought before the government. With those supps, there are two big ones. I know there is one we knew was coming and that was on the news with the forest fires and that the government was going to have to take the costs on. There was another one with the rate rider issue, and the Minister alluded to another one in the amount of $40 million.
I know we’re talking about infrastructure, but there’s a bit of a theme being discussed today. Having those supps come before committee and before the House, but very little notice of time to make the right decisions and have the good dialogue and discussion on whether we approve those or not. I just wanted to bring that up as an issue for me on how we’re making decisions and spending the taxpayers’ dollars, that when big amounts in supplementary appropriations are brought before committee, that we give enough time to have the dialogue and discussion so we can go back to our constituents and see how they feel about it, and residents of the Northwest Territories.
Earlier today the Minister made some opening remarks during his Minister’s statement. He did mention that the fiscal reality is we do depend on the territorial formula financing. We also saw that
the NWT population decreased this year or last year by 0.5 percent. Roughly that’s about $6.5 million, I’d say. If we are looking at that as the fiscal reality of this government, that’s something that needs to change, because that funding we use to put into infrastructure and programming.
So, just a few opening general comments to talk about where we are and some of the concerns I have as a committee member and how decisions are brought forward to our committee and concerned Members.
On the capital budget, we have some big, high-end issues coming down, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the fibre optic link and Stanton Territorial Hospital. In the Minister’s opening remarks, he did mention that we might be looking at a supplementary appropriation in February/March with this new Building Canada project. It’s good to hear because it does take some ease off of some Members who have been really pushing for some of the big projects in the regions. It’s not only for the regions; I think it will be something that benefits the whole NWT. When that appropriation comes in, I hope there is good discussion on where the priority dollars are going, what’s going to be needed.
One thing we have had during our business planning sessions, also, is the flow and building of housing in the communities. I think we are going to see a lot of gain there for the small communities as well. I think there are going to be about 100 units over the next three years, starting last fiscal year. I think that’s going to ease some of the waiting list and some of the public housing issues that we have in our small communities.
Highways is another big one. One of the other things I wanted to bring into focus in the community of Inuvik that I didn’t really see in the business plan and no dollars allocated for it was the airport road from Inuvik to the airport. Every year there is always work being done on it and every year it continues to get into the same shape it was the year before. I want to see more dollars put in there, so the foundation is stable so we don’t have to do repairs to it every year. Just last year the runway had an issue where no flights could come into Inuvik because there was a big dip in the runway. We put that issue into the planning stages when it was built years ago and how we are going to fix that. Just the airport itself, I believe the airport is the oldest building right now in Inuvik that hasn’t seen any major retrofits, major changes, unless you want to count the time we had that big storm and the roof flew off.
---Laughter
I think the airport needs to be redone. I think it’s on the books, but it is the oldest building in Inuvik.
We are in our third year and there are still concerns. Sorry, we are in our last year and we just
finished three years of doing this and we still get concerns from all the Members, whether they are small communities, regional communities or territorial communities. Those are some of my concerns, and I will have questions when we go through detail of the departments.
Right now some of the major concerns moving forward is our fiscal responsibility and management of how we are using our short-term borrowing dollars and what risk that puts the government at. Obviously, we have had some unforeseen costs, and what is this government going to do the next time an unforeseen expense comes our way? Are we going to be able to handle that issue when it’s in our face?
So, just some general comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.