Denny Rodgers

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, some of my colleagues have said we've had some briefing notes from -- at the government operations committee on the heritage fund, and we've had some experts come in and kind of compare us to other funds, not only in Canada but from around the world, and certainly to only have a 24 percent equity, while it's -- I understand it's public funds and certainly we want to be fairly risk adverse, but I do think that, you know, from what we've heard that's a fairly low amount to be in equities and likely we could see our fund do a little better if we were to take a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, like my colleague Mr. Morse, I'm referring to information item on page 181 which is the heritage fund and the amount that's in there. And I guess if I could start, Mr. Chair, if the Minister or deputy minister could provide a kind of a makeup of what's in that fund. And when I say makeup, with respect to the investment portfolio itself, equities versus treasury bills, bonds, other banking instruments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Deputy Premier, and thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the heightened lens on Arctic security and sovereignty, given that Yukon has an Arctic security council now, and I know I believe we were invited to join that possibly -- and I wouldn't recommend we do. I recommend we start our own. So I guess what I'm looking for of the Premier's office is a commitment to report back to committee on those engagements on Arctic security and committing to researching -- setting up our own security council here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier's office, obviously the executive. And the Premier's away; I'll ask the Deputy Premier.

I'm not sure, Mr. Speaker, what level we are involved with Op Nanook as a government, but I'd like to ask the Deputy Premier if she can provide some information around the details with our ongoing engagement with Ottawa around the military spending in the High Arctic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the 2025-2026 Main Estimates for the Department of Finance at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure if the Minister's willing to do any commitments here today, but certainly I think it would be a good idea to have an investment committee made up of either Members of obviously the AOC and Members of executive to oversee the function of the fund manager to look at things like rebalancing the fund and how we want to invest that funding. So certainly something I would suggest, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Who manages the fund currently, Mr. Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe I may have missed it. Did the Minister mention in that one what our annual yield was last fiscal year?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates, Department of Finance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's going to be a long day, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Does the Premier's office have dedicated staff that engage and prioritize Arctic security within the Department of the Executive? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.