Caroline Wawzonek

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...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, Mr. Chair, I mean, I'm not going to ask the public service necessarily to run theoretical scenarios on things that may or may not happen in a space where they have previously done and been able to, you know, respond fairly quickly, that there's a lot of understanding within the department and our fiscal policy division of what the current circumstances are, what the current options are. They've had multiple conversations with the Department of Finance over the last couple of years every time there's been changes from the federal side. We have the option to zero out...

Sorry, Mr. Chair. Yes, they're for the transfer over. Thank you. They were previously -- yes, they were previously -- they were previously unfunded, showing as unfunded in Infrastructure, but they're being brought in and reflected for the fact that they were filled in or need to be filled. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: 2023-2024 Public Accounts, Sections 1, 2, 3, and 4. Thank you, Mr. Speaker

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the Indigenous development and training program supports professional development for Indigenous employees by giving skills training, work experience, depending upon what the circumstances might be. So there's what is provided as a grant from the Department of Finance to help support employees through their departments to undertake these opportunities. We have a budget for up to 40 grants per year, and it's -- the number of applicants receiving funding supported by their departments has grown over the last few years. We are now as of, I believe last fiscal, sitting at...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's not that they're inaccurate. It's that at this point in time in the fiscal year, we don't have the actuals, so we are expecting or projecting right now that the year will end higher, closer to the $20 million range, which is where this year in the main estimates we have proposed to increase the budget to match closer to actuals from 2023-2024 closer to what we are projecting the ultimate number to be at the end of this fiscal year. Revised is done, I think, before, roughly in December, so -- I may be wrong on the timing on that. But it is not something that we had a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, again, Mr. Chair, this is back to, as I suggested earlier, that not yet finally knowing, A, when an election will be called; and, B, who would be elected, when they would be elected, and when they might make whatever changes they might make. The uncertainties that pile up with that, Mr. Chair, we're not going to be coming out right now and saying what we will or will not do other than to say that we'll remain in compliance at this time with the federal legislation, and, obviously, as that may vary, then we would be in a position to decide whether we want to vary ours...

That we do regularly, Mr. Chair. So there -- and, again, happy to provide sort of as of January 30th, 2025, I do have a comparison of combined marginal personal income tax rates, retail sales tax, fuel tax, carbon tax, tobacco tax, payroll tax, corporate income tax, and taxes on financial institutions, which we don't have in the North. It's a full chart against all provinces and territories so, Mr. Chair, probably not something that you want me to read out here with four minutes on the clock, but I can provide it to all Members and certainly consider having it put forward. Thank you.