Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the recommendations of committee actually was to find ways to increase the presence of independent fiscal analysis and advice to the Northwest Territories government. And, Mr. Speaker, the very purpose of the relationship that we have with the credit rating agency is, indeed, to evaluate their client's financial health. We, as the Department of Finance, meets with credit rating agencies and we have two, not just one, now we have increased that to two during the life of this government, Mr. Speaker, and we meet with them annually to give them an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is sometimes I think a wouldn't want anyone to ever forget that debt is ultimately is debt, and debt at the GNWT is exactly that. All of it comes in under our federallyimposed borrowing limit. P3 debt also comes in and has to be under the federallyimposed borrowing limit. It shows up also as well in budget materials that we have out. It is disclosed in the borrowing. P3 debt is disclosed separately in the borrowing plan. It's analyzed and it's presented in the budget fiscal papers. And finance certainly has to then evaluate where we're at in our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when it comes to well, again, if there's a loss of revenue that's impacting an owner's personal income, you know, again I'd suggest they consider applying and we'll consider whether or not they can be eligible, at least under the income disruption stream. More generally, I realize that doesn't necessarily help the viability and strength of a business. So, you know, ITI does have the they have their own programs under SEED, entrepreneur support programs, operational support programs. Those were used for businesses that were affected by the floods last year...

Mr. Speaker, yes, absolutely. I certainly wanted to vocalize that commitment here. Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago, we didn't have any staff assigned to this role. This wasn't something that we were contemplating. So while I am certainly cognizant that the people who were evacuated who are now having to go back after an extended period of time, they are the ones who are experiencing the greatest hardship. You know, again, we know that, but two weeks ago we didn't have anyone who was in the position of having to take these applications in. That said, Mr. Speaker, I can't say enough that I extend my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hear the back and forth on this issue in this House. I have heard it now for almost four years as well. I'm only hesitant to create something on the fly out of the Department of Finance when I know there's processes happening in ECC that I am less intimately familiar with. But, Mr. Speaker, the departments the two departments are more than happy to work together. I know Minister of ECC and I work together on shared areas of overlap, whether it's finance, whether it's ITI, we have joint meetings. We can certainly start to do that with Department of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, dealing with land leases obviously, I know the Member is well aware, is primarily the responsibility of now ECC. The Department of Finance certainly works with other departments but we really are, essentially, just the financial agent in that respect. So I can't pause the accounts of going out on my own, we would be relying on government policy to do that, and I know that work is happening right now over at ECC. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I was hoping to do some brief closing remarks, largely for the sake of ensuring that the purposes here are clear to the members of the public, so if I may, with that, Madam Chair, we are indeed seeking some supplementary funding for infrastructure expenditures in the amount of $124.5 million. This will bring total proposed expenditures for 20232024 to $462.146 million. As I outlined in Committee of the Whole yesterday, the additional numbers are mainly comprising capital carryovers.

Madam Chair, the GNWT does intentionally budget an amount above what we are...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: Plain Language Summary for Bill 92, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act, No. 3; Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1st to December 31st, 2022); and, Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1st, 2022 to March 31st, 2023). Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, again, Mr. Speaker, in terms of the public reporting, performance measures really are a part of well, there's a number of places where it would come in. They're a part of the work that Finance does in preparing the main estimates that's in the budget papers that are presented as part of those main estimates. It is often part of reporting that takes place when we're doing budget dialogues to help orient participants to what's going on in our fiscal picture. We certainly also are reporting on the provisions when we report in the public accounts. And, really, Mr...

Madam Chair, again, it's a carryover amount. So it's an amount that is under this contract for this work and, you know, this is our - it's our asset right now. If there is work that needs to get done on it, we would need to ensure that it needs to. But that is the case, this is part of the contracting process. The money is still there. It hasn't been released. And it won't be released until we're sure that there are no deficiencies. If there's no deficiencies, the money does move out. Thank you, Madam Chair.