Page 159, deputy minister’s office, operations expenditure summary, $96.193 million.

Page 160, deputy minister’s office, grants, contributions and transfers, $92.968 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Two questions. The first one has to do with contributions to the Heritage Fund. I noted in the Minister’s opening remarks, he stated an increase of $7.4 million to the contribution to the NWT Heritage Fund and that the total will be $7.6 million. I didn’t quite understand where the extra $0.2 million comes in and how we went from what the increase of $7.4 million is. I don’t understand the numbers.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll go to the deputy minister for clarification.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Ms. Bisaro.

Okay. Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the DM for that. That explains that, and I’m glad we’re going to put in the $250,000. That’s great.

My other question has to do with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation general rate application. I see that in ’15-16 there is no grant, no contribution there. My question goes to the impact of the end of this contribution and this subsidy which has given us bit of a rate holiday. How is that going to impact the power bills of residents? What am I going to see on my power bill, for instance, in ’15-16 since we’re no longer contributing anything to help reduce the cost of power?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member could expect to see another rate increase of single digits. The exact amount is not clear to me yet, but we protected against the rate cliff for four years and the price of diesel and the accommodation we have to make for that, the pressures have continued.

To the Minister, I just want it clarified. I think I understood what he said, but we had a very large increase four years ago which we have been gradually spreading out over the last four years, and in that time costs have increased and the Power Corp now faces another shortfall, so that is why we will be seeing another increase right away. Is that correct?

Yes, and of course, knock on wood, there are no low water challenges layered on top of that.

Committee, we’re on page 160, deputy minister’s office, grants, contributions and transfers, $92.968 million.

Page 161, deputy minister’s office, active positions. Questions?

Page 163, fiscal policy, operations expenditure summary, $34.816 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two questions on this activity, the first of which is the cost of living tax credit where it appears that we’re regressing on our main estimates compared to last year, maybe as a reflection to the population decrease or increase. But, to the overall question, do we anticipate that the government may look at any changes to this cost of living tax credit during this fiscal year?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

No, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Dolynny.

I guess the question is: Does the government see the potential benefits of increasing the amount of wage dollars going to those most vulnerable on the low end of the wage scale? Does the government or the department not see a benefit of not only raising the average wage, which we did, but also take a look at a combination of also putting more dollars in people’s back pockets by adjusting the cost of living tax credit?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. We’ll go to Deputy Minister Aumond.