This is page numbers 6259 – 6290 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 work.

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Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

That’s good to hear. I guess my last question is: So, operating sites, they are not included here. I believe we have another system, security deposits, financial security deposits and so on to look after those when if a mine is abandoned or the company goes bankrupt, which we know happens all too often, we will end up picking up that cost. But I’m wondering, in the consideration of what would go in here, do we include or should we be including, or is the mandate from the Auditor General or whoever is setting these standards, does it include consideration of operating sites for which we have not collected full financial security? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Aumond

For the purposes of this report, the assessment does not include any sites associated with devolution. Either closed sites or operating sites, as the Member stated, are assessed by the various regulatory agencies and they have security assigned to them. What we have here are for those sites that are on Commissioner’s lands prior to and after devolution came into place. 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

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I understand that these are sort of two separate questions in a way. I guess, in terms of registering our liability for our public accounts, which I believe is a part of this exercise, how would those be handled where securities have been assessed but not collected or secured for operating sites? How would that be accounted for?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What will happen in the broad sense is the $25 million will be booked and will be able to be tracked through the public accounts on a yearly basis. We’ll look at the ongoing work during the year.

In regards to the specific question by the Member, we’re not aware of any sites of the type that he has referenced. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Bromley.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll leave it at that. I can inform the Minister of instances where those in fact have arisen, but that’s another discussion. I’m happy to leave it for now.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you. Committee, we’re taking general comments on Tabled Document 246-17(5). General comments. Ms. Bisaro.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have some questions. I presume that’s acceptable? Thank you. I don’t have major concerns, but I think I need to ask some questions to ensure anybody who is listening to this and wondering about this great expense, to ensure that they understand what this is all about. The Minister stated in his opening remarks that this is a one-time expenditure, but I would suspect that we would see that it’s entirely possible with new developments happening, and/or the discovery of contaminated sites which we haven’t yet discovered, that we would see another one-time increase.

Can the Minister or officials give me some kind of idea if I’m correct in that, and if I am, what magnitude of dollars are we talking about?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have a fund and an amount of money before the House that we’ll book. It will draw down against that amount of money, roughly at about $2 million a year. Though we don’t think it will happen, should we stumble across a number of sites that we didn’t know existed that have significant costs attached to them after assessment, we would look at how it would draw down against the money we have. If we start we reach the point because of either increased development, sites coming to light that we weren’t aware of, then we would follow the due process to come back to ensure that we met the new standard.

As to the exact amount of money, I wouldn’t want to hazard… It would be inappropriate for me to hazard a guess on what may happen that far down the road. 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

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister. Yes, I’m not surprised that you don’t want to guess, either, as to the amount. So, just to confirm, at this point we think that we have found all the contaminated sites, both operating and non-operating on Commissioner’s land in the NWT. Is that right? Thanks.

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

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

When I use the term “Commissioner’s lands,” I’m thinking it’s the land that we’ve taken over since devolution, but I think those are called Territorial lands. So we think we’ve found all the sites on Territorial lands and Commissioner’s lands, just to confirm for me. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

On all those lands, except where there is an existing permit that was already granted. But for the most part, yes.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks. I’ll change direction a little bit here. This is a non-cash item, as the Minister said in his opening remarks and he kind of alluded

to a bit in talking to Mr. Bromley about how do we pay for this stuff. So, we’re recording a number of $25 million-and-some. It’s non-cash at the moment, but how do we pay for this $25 million? Because we’ve said we have $25 million of remediation work to do. So, how do we pay for that? Do we have a reserve, or are we accumulating money over a period of time? How do we end up with $25 million to do the remediation work whenever it needs to be done? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

There are two things. We’ve booked the number, a fixed amount as a liability that we have responsibility for, and we’ve built into our yearly budgets to the base at this point roughly $2 million a year to start working away at the remediation of the various sites as the work plan dictates. 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

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for that. I just have one last question. It’s my understanding that the public sector accounting principle that we are coming into adherence with applies to non-operating sites.

Could I get confirmation on that and could I also get confirmation that our number includes both non-operating and operating sites? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Deputy Minister Aumond.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Aumond

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The standard applies to both operating and non-operating sites. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you, deputy minister. Ms. Bisaro.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Okay, I guess I misunderstood the other day, but that’s good. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Thank you. Committee, we are taking general comments on Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015. Is committee agreed to go into detail?

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

Agreed.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Robert Bouchard

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015, Department of Finance, operations expenditures, office of the comptroller general, not previously authorized, $25.337 million.