Sorry, Mr. Speaker, I'm not finished yet. So I again owe to my constituents and the public to explain how I'm going to vote on this one. I'm very concerned that the supplementary reserve will be exceeded on this very first sup for 2023-2024 on the operations side, and I believe that there's going to be lots more spending required as a result of the fires and floods. So I don't think that this is good financial management, especially in relation to the climate emergency and that we have to have a much larger supplementary reserve in the future like we did two years ago where it was $65 million.
So I do want to commend the Minister, though. She has carried through on her commitments as part of our Budget 2023-2024 negotiations, and those commitments are contained in here. $4.775 million in new spending, I want to thank the Minister for that. But that's really dwarfed by the $15 million in new funding for NTPC in terms of rate stabilization.
Mr. Speaker, that's probably larger than the entire commitments the Regular MLAs have secured through budget negotiations over the almost four years that we've been here. We had no heads up whatsoever about this or a discussion with MLAs before this was brought forward in the supplementary appropriation, and I think that kind of thing should -- really, we should be told about this ahead of time. And I think this is really as a result of some poor planning by NTPC.
We heard my colleague from Yellowknife North talk about how the fuel costs were estimated at a dollar in the general rate application. And what we've really though witnessed is a failure to actually lower energy costs here in the Northwest Territories, and that's what the NTPC should be doing, building energy self-sufficiency and doing itself out of a job through the use of renewables and alternatives. So I think it's fair to say that Regular MLAs have wanted fundamental change at NTPC. We want to get away from a management board of deputy ministers that have been in place since 2016, or the last seven years.
What we did, Mr. Speaker, was we negotiated a commitment for a discussion paper on governance and on March 23rd, the finance minister said in this House that we would get an options paper. While I can't really talk about what was given to us, Mr. Speaker, I can tell the public that it was not an options paper. We received a two-page letter with a two-page attachment with a Cabinet decision. No options presented; we got a Cabinet decision.
Again, I think Regular MLAs wanted to have some input on this. We're going to perhaps have an opportunity to talk about it unfortunately behind closed doors. But I think the future of NTPC and the need to lower energy costs in the Northwest Territories is still a live issue, and I need to bring some attention to this, Mr. Speaker.
So I will very reluctantly vote in favour of this sup, because it does provide follow through on the commitments during the budget, but in no way can my vote be considered consent or agreement with providing a further bailout to NTPC, and there's Cabinet's broken promise on that, on NTPC governance, and I think they need to work with us more closely on that in the future. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.