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

Yes, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled “Citizens First 7 - Institute for Citizen-Centered Service, December 2014.”

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now I have to beg the indulgence of the House to restate the question so I can get it clearly. I was doing some other things.

I can put in writing the projects that I’ve mentioned, but I can tell you in this House, unequivocally, with no hesitation, that the capital plan that is coming forward is the last capital plan of this 17th Legislative Assembly that we have negotiated. The increase for borrowing limits to allow us to do things, we’re currently sorting out the potential amendments to the definition of borrowing. It may give us other flexibility, but there is and are no plans, other than what is in the current capital plan and the work that I just laid out to the Member about how, what projects we identify as things that we believe that the government should focus on to put that borrowing limit increase into play. But there has been no time, no process, no debate, no authorization to engage in any kind of major infrastructure. The only capital plan that’s going to hit the table is the one that has been in the works now as part of our regular cycle. Thank you.

I’ll just restate that we have, over the last 18 months probably, two years, we’ve been before committee on a number of occasions as our thinking has evolved on the projects, the borrowing limit, what projects we’re identifying to justify and to get the borrowing limit. If there’s a need for further meetings, we’d of course be happy to have that. When we talk about a significant investment in generation capacity in Yellowknife specifically, one of the things that are there is they hydro expansion, both potentially to the Bluefish as well as there is additional capacity in the Lac La Martre River, in the Snare system. We know that there’s additional capacity in the Taltson system.

The issue right now with that is that the only place we can dispose of that surplus would be to sell it south and use the money in the North, but we do have those types of projects on the list as well. It’s going to be a question of priorities and affordability.

The borrowing limit is not free money. This is money we have to pay back. So we have to be very, very careful and measure how we exercise the decision-making here. Thank you.

I would submit to this House and to the Member that there has been a full and normal capital planning process that the Members have been involved in and the fruits of those labours will come forward as a proposed capital plan for the last session at the end of September.

When we made the case to the federal government about the need for an increased borrowing limit, we clearly targeted it for those infrastructure investments that have the ability to promote and help create the conditions for economic development. In order to substantiate that case, we made some very specific recommendations. We suggested and we indicated that we believe there is an opportunity, and we know there is an opportunity to convert, for example, the winter road north to MacKay Lake to the mines to an all-weather road. We indicated and we have submitted a proposal that committee is fully aware of, to extend the Mackenzie Highway from Wrigley to Norman Wells. We’ve put in a project proposal for projects of national significance. That one has been in the works for some time. We have indicated at our last energy charrette that we know that there are generation issues, especially in Yellowknife and in the thermal communities. We have indicated that we think, as a government, we should be prepared to invest significant money in the appropriate projects to advance and get people off diesel and to make cost of living more affordable in especially the thermal communities and to address some of the pressing generation needs in Yellowknife.

Those are some specific examples. There are not only examples, there has been work done. It’s going to be to get the groundwork done to start the

planning, and that is the way, and committee is fully aware of all those proposed projects. We needed to get the groundwork done and we needed to be able to convince the federal government that our thinking was clear on why we needed that borrowing limit increase.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The discussion about the borrowing limit, the opportunities presented by that borrowing limit, the responsibilities that go with that opportunity are there to be discussed. The most imminent part of our financial cycle that is now coming due, of course, is the capital planning process. That has been underway for some months. The main estimates, the capital estimates will be released and we’ll be sharing them with committee based on all the work that we’ve done over the winter and spring. There is going to be the initiation of the business planning process that comes forward through its normal cycle, knowing that we’re going to have a cycle that is out of sync because of the extended date for the election. There will be discussions there. There is going to be a fiscal update as part of the transition plan. We’ve indicated that there is going to be a requirement to keep expenditures and revenues in sync, and our expenditures are increasing faster than our revenues and that we’re going to have to do the things necessary to make sure that we bring those two key variables in line. That is going to take place.

All of this to say that that process is going to capture what financial decisions have to be made and will be made. This government, our job is to get the levers and the tools for the subsequent Assemblies to have as much flexibility as possible. We would be happy to meet with committee about this issue, but there are no active plans of any kind other than those processes when it comes to looking at how we are going to manage our fiscal planning on a go-forward basis. How we’re going to do it to get us through the rest of this Assembly is

laid out, as is the transition plan, and the 18th Assembly will pick up the reins at that juncture. Thank you.

There is work being done on waste disposal, wastewater. The long-term goal is to manage it very effectively, treat it, if possible, and reclaim it, if possible, in the Northwest Territories. Those regulations and practices are also being reviewed. Right now every project in the past would have their own separate wastewater disposal requirements. There is an economic economy that I know has already been discussed and talked about in the Sahtu about if we’re going to do this in a coordinated way, having a state-of-the-art facility like that in Norman Wells as development occurs, again, to make sure that we can do the best job possible.

Right now there is no active fracking or drilling going on in the Sahtu to the ones that are there, and I don’t have the number at my fingertips, are relatively small and there are no new ones on the horizon because there is no activity currently in the Sahtu.