Department of Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, education and culture, not previously authorized, $1.870 million.

Labour development and standards, not previously authorized, $448,000.

Total department, not previously authorized, $2.318 million.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, environment, not previously authorized, $29,000.

Forest management, not previously authorized, $2.246 million.

Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a large amount here of $1.5 million to provide funding for the purchase of eight Air Tractor Fire Boss air tankers. Could I get an explanation of why this is a supplementary appropriation? I believe we had put it into our budget earlier, the budget that was passed earlier this year. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Deputy Minister Aumond.

Thanks to Mr. Aumond for that. I’m presuming that if we are advancing $1.5 million that we’re probably going to have to borrow it. Have we considered the cost of advancing the money in terms of borrowing against the money that we’re

saving? I imagine it probably isn’t a heck of a lot, but I have to ask the question. Thank you.

Just one last question. The statement was that this would accelerate the delivery of the first two aircraft. Am I correct, we are going to get two aircraft a little sooner than the original schedule laid out? Will that have any impact on the aircraft following the delivery of the two? Is that schedule impacted? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Kalgutkar.

Thank you, Mr. Kalgutkar. Next I have Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just continuing questions where Ms. Bisaro left off, so we have an accelerated delivery of two of the 802 Fire Boss air tankers en route. I look here and there is some carry forward or offset for an air tanker base workshop/storage in Hay River. We have another air tanker base dispatch standby facility in Norman Wells, which seems to be lapsed money. So, with the anticipated early delivery of these two air tankers, where will these tankers be predominantly located, and again, are we also having multiple air tanker base facilities throughout the Northwest Territories? Is that the intention here? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The current infrastructure will continue to be used. The aircraft will be split initially between Smith and Yellowknife on a start-up basis, then they will be moved across the North on a required basis, wherever that may be. We have other supplementary bases in Hay River, Norman Wells, Simpson and Inuvik, among other places. So we will continue to use the infrastructure that we have to support the current aircraft which, over time, will be surplused. Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister’s response to that. Just as a confirmation, because we are looking at an accelerated delivery of these 802 air tankers, will we have the facility in place to deal with that early delivery? Thank you.