Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's a fairly big question; I'll try to be mindful of time.

With respect to infrastructure investment and funding, Mr. Chair, there are funds that CRTC does either administer or have some ability to influence. So, for instance, universal broadband fund in the last government was one which helped support the extension of the fibre into Whati. Another example, Mr. Chair, is current discussions around whether or not redundancy opportunities would be able to be funded from some of these sources. To date, they haven't been, but certainly for the North where we lack a lot of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 20: Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures and Borrowing Authorization), No. 2, 2024-2025, be read for the second time.

This bill makes the supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures and borrowing authorization for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2024-2025-fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the fund is actually -- this is a good time to ask that question, Mr. Chair. The act does require a review by the Assembly every ten years, and this Assembly happens to be the 10-year review period, so this is exactly the work that needs to be undertaken. I believe committee is actually responsible for the review, so happy to be part of that. I know that -- I gather that process is clearly underway, and I'm looking forward to seeing what may come of it, and certainly, that's -- the point is if there needs to be changes, there'll be changes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll start with the deputy.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise the House that the honourable Member from Hay River North, the Premier, will be absent from the House for the remainder of this week to attend to the Council of Federation in Washington, DC. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so no, we're not overstating the budget to make it all look better. It doesn't have that kind of effect on it, Mr. Chair. And perhaps given that this is getting into the process of how it is actually budgeted, I might start with the deputy minister but we might turn to director of shared corporate services too. Thank you.

to the deputy minister, please.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 20, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures and Borrowing Authorization), No. 2, 2024-2025, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I have as of March 31st of last year, so the actuals coming in from last fiscal, we have a breakdown of equity at 24.2 percent fixed income. Yields or bonds are at 9.8 percent fixed income. Short term, 54.5 percent. There's cash equivalence of just under 11 percent. And we do yet accrue interest at 5 -- .5 percent as well as dividends at a small marginal amount, 0.5 percent. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. No, and, Mr. Chair, happy to spend a bit more time on it. I think this is actually an important -- quite an important concept that happens across different line items, and this is a good one to use as any.

So we -- the 2023-2024 number that you see there is actuals. We don't get that until much later in the budget cycle. Obviously, we're filing public accounts, you know, after the fact when the fiscal year is well over and we're already well into the next cycle, so the budget would have already been established in 2024-2025 and would have stayed at 13.088 unless we...