Don Stewart

Thank you, Mr. Chair. After accounting for the items that are in this supplementary bill, there will be approximately $6.4 million left in the supplementary reserve for O and M for 2016-17.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The expectation was that they were going to sunset, but they are actually vacant at this time. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The increase there is primarily related to the Service Innovation Strategy. That office also takes care of our involvement in CRCT hearings and those sorts of events as well, but that would be the increase reason for that one. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The Minister will get back to the committee with the exact number, but my understanding it's approximately 800 to 1,000 is my memory of that. We will get the exact answer and get back to you on that one.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We estimate that it will be over 2,000 families that will be eligible to receive the NWT child benefit. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So again, you can see there is a whole list of detail provided out under "accounting services," and that's really the leftover amount that relates to the staff who are involved in government accounting operations and those sorts of things. So the bulk of that would be salary dollars for our accounting services division as well as a small amount of O and M. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the short answer would be yes, but it really is based on, as opposed to just going in with the $2 million, it is as we refine estimates of cost and those sorts of things or identify new sites, it is sort of up to $2 million. Although, obviously, if some event happened and you had to allocate more, then we would have to come back for a supplementary appropriation or those sorts of things. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks, Mr. Chair. The Member I think is looking at page 141. What we have done is, rather than just combine it under deputy secretary of the FMB, we separated out the Mackenzie Valley fibre link payments, which is the $13,987,000. The other $2.8 million is other costs related to the office of the deputy secretary of the FMB, so it is salaries and those sorts of things. The other thing it includes, as you can see it is significantly higher than last year, it also includes the amortization for the fibre link project in that value.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I tend to agree with the Member on this. This is part of the reason for the changes to the Child Tax Benefit that are in the Income Tax Act. We are moving some of that from the legislation to regulation, which will make it easier to increase rates into the future. You know, I do not want to call it a historical artifact, but when these pieces of legislation were set up they often had that, and I think the concept that the Member is talking about makes good sense to make it easier to adjust these as you go forward. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. There were two positions that were reduced. They were involved in the devolution implementation. One is in the management and recruitment services and one is in strategic human resources.