Thank you. Infrastructure, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $11,670,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Moving on. Programs and services, beginning on page 248. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the department has done a good job over the years of making considerable contributions, especially to other organizations, NGOs and the like, that do work on our behalf. In particular, the Arctic Energy Alliance, we give a significant sum to every year, and they do an outstanding job in making sure that their programs and services benefit the residents of the North. Recently, it has been brought to our attention that a particular program within the Arctic Energy Alliance, and unfortunately, I don't have the exact name of the program in front of me, but again, it was successful, it was oversubscribed, and so it has a shortfall this year. I heard that it is around $50,000. Maybe it is more.

I am wondering what kind of decisions the Minister is making as it relates to finding a way to be able to credit those people who were applying for programs that late this year discovered that the pot had ran out. Will the Minister find a way within his means to be able to credit those people who went and made those purchases, like we would have wanted them to do? Can the department find a way to help give Arctic Energy Alliance some money to be able to back-pay those people who made their purchases during last year's budget cycle? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this question came up in the House here just lately. We are still hopeful or confident that we are going to be able to resolve this year. As I said in the House, we are having a look at our other programs within A and E, but we are also reaching out to other departments for other sources of funding that we can use to help alleviate the people that haven't been able to get the rebate.

I have also said in the House here that we have our application in with the federal government on the Low Carbon Economy Fund, and we are hopeful to hear from them by early April on the funding of that agreement, which would help prop up Arctic Energy Alliance and probably double their budget.

We are still doing our program review of the programs and services within the AEA to streamline and see what we need to adjust there to try to get away from these types of problems and which programs are working the best and which ones aren't. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, this is all good news and appreciated. Does the department know, in fact, how much shortfall there was in the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program that was administered by Arctic Energy Alliance last year? Do we know what kind of resources we're looking for to try to backfill the oversubscription? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We believe it was between $50,000 to $100,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the fiscal year end is coming up here right away, we want to be able to resolve this before March 31st. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.

No further questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Further to programs and services, Infrastructure, programs and services, operations expenditures summary, activity total. Mr. O'Reilly.

I just want to understand better from the perspective of the department the large sort of renewable and alternative energy projects, the larger ones, say like the Colville Lake solar panel array, that kind of thing. Those things would normally come out of the capital budget. We wouldn't see them in the departmental budget. Is that correct, in the O and M budget? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Guy.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that's helpful. I don't really see much here. I'm looking at page 250 in terms of any new grants or contributions, then, to help larger or even community-scale renewable or alternative energy projects. We're just sort of sitting back waiting for federal dollars to rain from heaven? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The deal that we signed yesterday with Minister Sohi, that's where a lot of these funds are going to come from. Now that we've signed our bilateral as of yesterday, the projects that move forward in the next fiscal year, we will be coming back for except for those ones. Thank you, Mr. Chair.