Daryl Dolynny

That is quite an alarming number. Anybody who has a mortgage, who owes money, knows that $2.9 million being financed does have a cost to it. That cost is borne by you and I. It’s borne by the taxpayers. At the end of the day, it affects programs and dollars we don’t have. We don’t have the ability to finance large sums of money like that at any given time. More alarming than that number is the fact that there’s a substantial amount of money that is debt owed to us from a long period of time. Can the Minister indicate, out of that number, how much is owed to us that is over six months old?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Welcome back, Mr. Speaker and my fellow colleagues from across this great territory, as we roll up our sleeves for a very energetic and hopefully productive couple of weeks.

With all the recent municipal elections and school board action in the past month, I am really looking forward to harnessing all the new focus and new ideas that were shared amongst so many great civic leaders. From Iqaluit to Whitehorse, from Fort Smith to Inuvik, the North was a myriad of topics that were all designed to improve our everyday lives.

We wish to take this time to thank the many brave...

Mr. Speaker, it is fairly obvious that that number doesn’t want to be surfaced here today. I will leave it at that, Mr. Speaker. I have no further questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate you letting me get back into the queue here regarding the questions on what I was talking about and the cost of borrowing money, or basically being one who is owed money in accounts receivable.

In my last question I was trying to ask the Minister of Finance was the fact what is the amount of money owed to us, which was a rolling average at that time back in June of this year from the Government of Nunavut, over 180 days.

This is a substantial improvement from the last time we asked this question. I’ll ask my third question: What was the amount owed to us back in June of this calendar year when this was brought up in the House?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The cost of money costs money. What I mean by that is that whenever we have to finance a dollar, it costs the GNWT a lot of money.

Back in Committee of the Whole last session we were doing an extensive review of some of the expenses and supplementary estimates. We came across what I thought was a fairly alarming finding, and that was the money owed to this government from one of our sister territories, the Nunavut government. Upon requesting a review, later on we did get some information from the Minister and my question would be for the Minister of Finance. Because of...

With that, we will go to opening comments for Committee Report 3-17(3). Before we do that, Mr. Hawkins.

Question has been called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Ms. Bisaro.

Welcome back committee. I’ll call committee to order here. We’ve got three orders on the Order Paper today. We have Committee Report 3-17(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the Office of the NWT Languages Commissioner Annual Report 2010-2011; Committee Report 4-17(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Review of the Status of the Auditor General of Canada; and Committee Report 5-17(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Rules and Procedures Report. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Just give a second for that motion to circulate.

A motion is on the floor. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.