Agreed.
Debates of Feb. 26th, 2014
This is page numbers 3977 – 4034 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was going.
Topics
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Some Hon. Members
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to do our annual check on the Deh Cho Bridge here. The interest is $8.166 million. I don’t see that changing over years. Is that just something we pay in perpetuity here? Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Kalgutkar
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Unfortunately, we will be paying over the next 30 years. As I’ve stated before, the Deh Cho Bridge debt, our bond is based on real return bonds, so the amounts do change every fiscal year depending upon the rate of inflation. What’s in the budget in 2014-15 and in 2013-14, we’re not anticipating that
significant of a change, so I just left the budget as is for 2014-15.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Again, just for my simplistic understanding here, we don’t anticipate the general amount to change over the course of those 35 years or whatever. Is that correct?
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Kalgutkar
The payment on the Deh Cho Bridge debt is not anticipated to change over the next three or four years. As we start paying off the principal balance and as the rate of inflation increases, then the payment will likely start increasing as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thanks to Mr. Kalgutkar. I’m not even going to go there. Thank goodness my payments on the house go down when I pay them off. The Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link, I see we spent $7 million. Have we laid an inch of line yet? Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No, we’re still looking at a completion date of the second quarter of 2016. We’re just in the process of going through the candidates that applied and made the cut through the request for proposals. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thank you. So we’ve spent $7 million thinking about it. Do we have an estimate yet on the total costs for this project?
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you. We’ve been actively pursuing this project since late in the 16th Assembly when we got the initial papers
together, we made our initial contact with P3 Canada and we started building the case to, in fact, commit ourselves to this project. So in regards to the detail, I’ll just ask Mr. Kalgutkar to speak to that since this is his file and he’s leading the charge. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Kalgutkar
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As Members are aware, we’re trying to procure this project under a P3 type procurement. So what the $7 million represents is to finance some of the pre-development costs that are usually associated with a P3 project in ’13-14, then once the project becomes operational in 2016 the $7 million will be used to finance the debt and other operating costs that has been incurred by the P3 partner. It’s what typically is called an availability payment to the P3 entity. At the same time, when the fibre is operational, that fiscal year we’ll have to book the capital costs of the fibre onto the GNWT books as well. So that should happen in the 2016-17 fiscal year. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thanks for that information. I assume that means we don’t know what the cost of the project is, the total cost of the project. The Minister mentioned we’ve been working on this since the 16th . I don’t see any expenses listed in
previous years, but perhaps we’ve already spent $10 million thinking about this project. So I’ll look forward to discussing the financial side of things on this project in committee I guess.
I see an interest expense listed of $4.8 million down from $5 million last year and it doesn’t say what that’s for. Probably I’m supposed to know, but I don’t. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Kalgutkar
Thank you. Just to close the loop on the Mackenzie Valley fibre link, as the Minister referred to, we are in the procurement process right now and we should be at a stage to get indicative pricing on the project sometime within the next few weeks, and at that time we will check in with the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning again just to give them an update of where we are with the project. Right now the apex of the project is estimated to be between $65 and $70 million, but we’ll have a better sense of what that is sometime in mid to late March and in accordance with our policy we’ll be back in front of committee to assess whether we continue or not.
In terms of the interest expense, that is related to our short-term interest expense. If Members recall, a couple of years ago we had a top-up to our short-term borrowing limit from $175 million to $275 million and that increases us to be consistent with that increase in that limit. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thanks for the additional information on the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link. This is a project that I think everybody supports and we’d love to see it get done as expeditiously and efficiently as possible. Are we expecting to spend more this fiscal year once we do have all of this information in? I assume that would be through a supp. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Kalgutkar
The $7 million that are representing the main estimates, is this the budget? We are obviously not spending to that level yet. Again, once we get a better sense of the indicative pricing on a project sometime in March and we are back in committee, we will have a much clearer picture of how much this project is going to cost us. At that time, we will make a decision whether to continue or not. Just to confirm, there will be no additional money requested this year. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a question with regards to interest expense as well. I thank Mr. Bromley for asking the initial one, but I guess I would like to know, considering that we are expecting a drop in our revenues, we keep talking
about that, some $38 million, is that going to have an impact on our short-term borrowing? Is this figure for interest expense, the estimated amount; is it liable to be less than what we now anticipate the interest costs to be for 2014-15? Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Kalgutkar
Mr. Chair, the amount of our interest expense largely depends on when we enter into a cash deficit position. Currently, we are perpetually in a cash deficit position starting September. If that line crosses earlier, then we will obviously incur more interest costs, but the current forecasts are that we will likely be slightly under the $4.8 million. Thank you.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake
Mr. Chair, thanks to Mr. Kalgutkar for that. My other question has to do with the program review office. This is being or has been transferred, will be transferred into the Department of Finance from the Executive where it now sits. I read the description of the program review office on page 5-20. It doesn’t really read the way that I thought the program review office was described to us in the 16th Assembly. It seems to be less a
section or a division to find efficiencies in government and more one which is going to sort of assist departments with evaluation and accountability and so on. I would like to know from the Minister, has there been a shift in the function of the program review office? Is it now more supportive of other departments in making sure that they have evaluations that go along with any new program and that they have evaluations that evaluate programs that are currently in place? Or does it still have the function and is it a large… I will leave it at that. I will ask the second question later. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters