Daryl Dolynny

Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 22-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2014-2015, and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bassi-Kellett. Moving on with general comments, I have Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. We’ll go to Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. We’ll go to Ms. Bassi-Kellett.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to welcome the Department of HR, the Minister, DM and staff here today. I guess, first and foremost, I want to start off by congratulating the department for a well-deserved accolade for the second year in a row under the Canada’s best diversity employers. Again, congratulations. It’s always nice to read about that. I read it in the Globe and Mail the other day, so congratulations to you and your teams for continuing the good work.

I just want to do some general comments here, and some of them might be followed up in detail, but I think it’s prudent for us to...

Mr. Speaker, I was hoping to hear more about the partnering aspect, because I think that a lot of these facilities are a bit concerned here.

Has the Minister or his staff performed any risk assessment that may occur if such junior kindergarten initiatives create closures of private daycare or current program offerings in our communities? Thank you.

I guess we’re hearing from the Minister that this was an internal policy, possibly vetted with some people with criterion in financial management, but we’re not quite certain.

So, I guess, when was the last time this policy was thoroughly reviewed to address the growing debt load that we’re about to incur and with such negative revenue growth?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When times are tight, you pay down your exposed debt, retool your expenses and seek ways to increase your revenues. When times are good, you invest and plan for growth with infrastructure and service enhancement. These should be the principles of a sound business plan or, in our case, a fiscally prudent government balance sheet. Sadly, this is not the case. Instead, we see our financial picture as one based on a Fiscal Responsibility Policy that doesn’t pass the smell test, yet this policy is touted and praised at every conceivable opportunity by our Minister of Finance...

I guess my final question has to do with the planned monitoring that potentially could have some changes.

Are there any foreseeable changes for the insurers out there that are providing these services, both in government and private industry? Is there going to be a seamless transition for all providers that deal with adjudication billings with this plan? Thank you.

With that number and, again, with perceived forced growth, what’s the number that the department is using as a go-forward number in terms of costs for future budgets? Thank you.