Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few comments. The money allocated for the Heritage Fund, as the Minister knows, when we were at NWT Days and speaking with Norway about where their Heritage Fund was at, they were just reaching $1 trillion. Even as small a number as this is for our

government, we are taking the right steps and moving forward in terms of building on to this Heritage Fund for future generations of NWT, especially with the fiscal situation we see ourselves in. This might be something that might be able to help, like I said, future generations.

I too, like Mr. Yakeleya, would like to commend the work of the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link. As you heard in my reply to budget address, I think this is going to be something we can see in the future giving us more stable and sustainable revenues for program services or even infrastructure how we use those revenues and distribute those throughout the Northwest Territories. It’s mentioned in here of the contribution to the NWT Housing Corp and all the work the Housing Corp is doing in terms of creating market housing as well as public housing units. Even with the seniors dwellings being developed, I think that’s a good investment as well. It’s going to hopefully cut down on some of the long waiting lists for some of our units.

Then, again, you give all the highlights, but there are still some concerns. One is our debt ceiling, short term and long term. Obviously, with the low water levels at Snare and our dry season and the increased cost of forest fires, the short-term borrowing limit, I understand we are looking at increasing that again. Should any other disasters occur or anything that might happen in any of the communities, my community for one with the Dempster Highway closing during the winter quite a few times and just having LNG as a backup can be a concern, and if there’s ever the need to evacuate or do something with the community, especially Inuvik, that might be of concern for exceeding our short-term borrowing and the need to utilize those dollars for something else. It might not even be Inuvik; it could be anywhere else. Without that guarantee of our debt wall increasing, I think that’s cause for alert for this government, something we should red flag. I think that it is a concern for me.

Within this department, they’ve just taken on the responsibility for the Program Review Office. We did get a list of all the recommendations and programs that were reviewed. This office continues to be expensive, $777,000 in the main estimates. I’m sure they are doing really good work on behalf of government to see where we can be more efficient in government spending, but if we don’t act on those recommendations and put forth some of the recommendations coming out of this Program Review Office, my question is what good is the Program Review Office if we don’t act on the recommendations that they are making.

I want to make one highlight here, just in terms of the office of the comptroller general and public accounts practice in getting those interim public accounts before the standing committee. I think they really did a great job in enhancing that practice

and doing it better to get the public accounts to us before we go through this process of getting to main estimates.

So, just a few concerns but also a few good comments and where this department is moving forward in their investments as well as some of the work that’s been going on with public accounts. Just my general comments there, Mr. Chair. Thank you.