Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 17, motions. Mr. Blake.

WHEREAS Section 61 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act permits the appointment of an Information and Privacy Commissioner by the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, after the approval of the appointment by resolution of the Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS the Legislative Assembly considers the appointment of an Information and Privacy Commissioner essential to exercise the powers and perform the duties under the act;

AND WHEREAS the term of the Information and Privacy Commissioner expires on October 30, 2015;

AND WHEREAS the Legislative Assembly is of the opinion that the appointment of an Information and Privacy Commissioner should now be made to be effective on October 30, 2015;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that pursuant to Section 61 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, that Ms. Elaine Keenan Bengts be reappointed for a term of five years as Information and Privacy Commissioner;

AND FURTHER, that the appointment be effective October 30, 2015.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called.

---Carried

Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 246-17(5), Supplementary

Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015; Tabled Document 247-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016; and Tabled Document 248-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We would like to consider two of the supplementary appropriations that were recently tabled, Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015 and, time permitting, Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2015-2016. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Thank you. We will reconvene after a brief break. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

I’ll call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we agreed to first look at Tabled Document 246-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015. I would like to ask the Minister responsible, Minister Miltenberger, if he has opening comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015. This document proposes an increase of $25.337 million in operations expenditures associated with a non-cash expenditure for a one-time increase to the total environmental liability in response to changing accounting standards that became effective for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

I am prepared to review the details of the supplementary estimates document.

Thank you. Minister Miltenberger, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort in the witnesses. Committee agree?

Minister Miltenberger, please introduce your witnesses, please.

I have with me Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance; and Sandy Kalgutkar, deputy secretary to the FMB. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I would like to open the floor to general comments on Tabled Document 246-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-2015. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand this came about as a result of new accounting procedures required by whoever sets those things. I don’t know whether it’s the Auditor General or what. I am happy to see this. I think our government is too. They realize these liabilities are real and are out there, and it’s nice to have some assessments on which to base what the costs are going to be in the future and today.

I understand that there are two components to this. One is assessing existing sites in a little more depth, rather than just knowing they exist and they do have some degree of liability. We are now trying to quantify that a little bit. We’re also adding in sites that were worked on before, non-operating sites.

In terms of the assessment of work that’s been done on estimating costs of cleanup of sites that we have done in the past, what degree of confidence do we have in those? How deep did they go? Do we expect when we get around to doing the work, we will need more work? Is it likely that these are conservative estimates and there is some chance the final cost will be less than what the current appraisal is? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Deputy Minister Aumond.

Thanks for that response. So, did we do any fieldwork on this? Was there an attempt to build in the area of contamination, the degree of contamination, the depth of contamination, that sort of thing, in toward building these estimates? Thank you.