Committee agreed?

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses in.

Minister Miltenberger, please introduce your witnesses for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mike Aumond and Jamie Koe, who were also in the gallery earlier on and I neglected to recognize. I’d like to recognize in this forum that they were there today with the NEB folks. As well, I have Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar from Finance as well. If Mr. Koe looks twitchy, it’s because he’s going to be heading out to the Brier literally in the next few hours, so he’s keen.

---Laughter

No pun intended, hopefully. Welcome, gentlemen. Good luck, Jamie. Yesterday we left off on page 5-9, information item, revenue summary. Any questions?

Page 5-10, information item, active position summary. Any questions? Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Without going through a long description as to what I want, I think the Minister knows. If he could provide me with a summary of what is funded, unfunded and empty positions and the value attributed to that. If he could send it to my office, I would be happy with that. Basically the same questions I asked Minister Ramsay in the Justice department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Miltenberger.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I will provide that information.

Good.

Page 5-10, information item, active position summary.

Page 5-13, activity summary, deputy minister’s office, operations expenditure summary, $89.632 million. Agreed?

Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it belongs here. I wanted to ask the question about legislation. I wanted to say at the outset that I am extremely pleased that we’ve had first reading of the NEBS Act. It’s been a long time coming and I’m really glad that we managed to get that done.

I did want to ask, though, about whether or not there are any plans in the works on the part of the department to make any changes to the Petroleum Tax Act? It’s been mentioned a number of times by a number of Members and I can’t remember all the specific details, but I know that we don’t treat, we don’t tax all of our petroleum products the same. So I’d like to know if there’s any consideration on the part of the department to make amendments to the Petroleum Tax Act. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We expect a legislative proposal to be ready in May.

Thanks. That’s great, glad to hear. Is the Minister at liberty to tell us what kinds of changes are likely to be proposed? Thank you.

At this point they’re mainly administrative in nature. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. My other question has to do with the Financial Administration Act, which I know has, I think, for quite some time, been on their radar for the department to do some work. Can I get a sense from the Minister of when it will come forward to the House for first reading? Thank you.

Thank you. The intention is to have it ready for first reading for October session.

Thanks. That’s great. That’s all I have.