Robert C. McLeod

As Members are aware, at the beginning of the 18th Legislative Assembly, I think even before we sat in this Chamber, the first news we got was our formula financing grant from Canada was cut by $34 million, so we were behind the 8-ball right off the bat. We will take every opportunity, as I have said before, to work with the federal government to see about accessing more funds for the Northwest Territories. They do recognize the cost of doing business up here is higher than the rest of the country. They've made significant infrastructure investments into the Northwest Territories, which in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we are looking at a number of different options, and I think we've gone before committee and presented some of those options. We are waiting to hear back from committee. We'll continue to have those discussions, and then in the absence of waiting on the response from committee, I do not think we should be having that discussion on the floor of the House; but just to assure people that we have done our work and we do know what some of the effects may be, and we are taking steps to mitigate those. Once we have our conversations with committee, then we'll be able...

No, I will take it as a note and that the Member has brought it to our attention, thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, yes, we are optimistic that this line is going to benefit, as Mr. Kalgutkar said. As it is starting to prove itself worthy, then you get more people online. I will commit to updating the Regular Members’ committee on some of the work that we are doing and get some feedback from them, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Territorial Formula Financing is one we have been operating under for a length of time now. They do recognize the cost of doing business up in the Northwest Territories, and I think they funded us accordingly. Governments past have been successful in keeping the territorial formula funding as it is right now.

We get just over $1.2 billion from the federal government for 44,000 people, and that allows us to help lower the cost of living, because I believe we spend close to $190 million to try to lower the cost of living. We could have discussions with the...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I mean, we can commit to doing an analysis once the year is over, but, again, the Member and I are both speculating that it would be fewer people filing income tax, fewer people working, but we will do the work and get the analysis done, and we will share it with the committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I take the Member's point that, for a lot of folks coming for training, they come in to Yellowknife. I have tasked the department with trying to offer as many courses as they can in the regional centres so, some of the smaller folks, their costs to come down will not be as high as it is coming to Yellowknife, so we are working on that. Then the courses that are offered online, as the Member pointed out, project management, my understanding is one of those courses, so they are fairly substantive courses. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, we do, Mr. Chair.

We have experts of our own within the government system who are well versed in these types of correspondence so we will review it. I commit to the Member we will review the contents of the reports that were done and see how it fits into how we do business in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the $13 million that you see there is the annual payment to the partnership that built the fibre optic line, and the other figure you see is the amortization of that amount. Thank you, Mr. Chair.