Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2014-2015. This document outlines an increase of $13.259 million in operations expenditures for the 2014-2015 fiscal year, of which $3.81 million is offset by revenues.

Excluding the 2014-15 forest fire season and the impacts of low water on the Snare Hydro System, the GNWT was able to limit supplementary expenditures to $10.9 million or $9.1 million below the supplementary reserve budget of $20 million for 2014-15.

The more significant items included in the supplementary estimates are:

A total...

The Member is correct; there were the two issues. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’ve noted the Member’s suggestion. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The intention is to have a clear point of presence in all the communities affected and benefitting from the fibre optic line and then the business opportunity will kick in in the communities either through a service provider from somewhere, or in cases like Deline where there’s an interest in the community to provide all those services themselves and create a business that would hook up all the telecommunication and Internet requirements and run them the same as is done in larger communities. We see this is a business opportunity at the community level with cable, with...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Minister pointed out, we review this on an ongoing basis. What has also been helpful in the past, harkening back to my time as Health Minister, we went down a number of times with the Social Programs committee and toured the facilities. When you walk on the ground and go into the facilities and meet the clients, you get a very, very stark understanding of the challenges. Not to say it can’t be done, because we have built facilities in Fort Smith. We put in facilities in Hay River, Inuvik and Yellowknife over the years to pick up children and adults who were down...

The payroll tax is the same. The cost of living tax credit is in place that benefits Northerners and allows for some of the money to be recovered through the tax refund process. Thank you.

There are regular reviews done of the clients down south, both adults and children. The significant challenge is the multiple presenting problems, very, very complex, in many cases, presenting problems that require constant 24/7 supervision. There is such a wide array of special needs and requirements that it would be impossible, in the estimation of the government, to be able to bring back a facility worth 10 or 15 of these folks all with a wide array of problems, to try to put them all in one facility. When they are placed down south, we have the ability to be able to go and place them in...

With regard to the previous question, over the past five-year period from 2009-2010 to 2013-14, the average payroll tax generated was $38.7 million per year. In 2013-14 the GNWT collected $41.245 million in payroll tax revenue. Thank you.

Seventy-five federal, 25 territorial. Thank you.