Fred Koe

Thank you, Madam Chair. The base building modifications, and that's the word for it, were to get, you know, things like all of the materials that were in the building out, whether there was hazardous materials in there or not, but to get those out. The project was to get that building to a suitable situation so that the workers can come in to do those renovations for the long-term care facilities and the other facilities that will be in there. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Compared to the last main estimates approved in 2019-2020, this carry-over consists of about just over 40 percent, 40.2 percent. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know I'm not quite explaining myself well, here, but there is just the one building, the old Stanton building. The project had two separate projects, which was two stages, and one was to get that building up to I'm going to use the word "code," get that up to the base code. I see the Minister if Infrastructure is cringing at my comment, but it was to get that up to a base place where everything was signed off and everything was hazard-free so that a different project could begin to do the renovations. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, they are two separate projects, because one is around the base building and, obviously, getting the Stanton building upgraded so that it is a building that meets all the standards of a building of that nature for today. The other project is the renovations to get that building renovated for the long-term care facility and services that will be operated in there; so they are two separate projects. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Maybe I misunderstood the question. Is the Member asking how much of the carry-over was carried over in the previous year, as well? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's a project funded under the Investing in Canada plan, so it is 75-percent funded under that by the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's a hard estimate to do quickly. It would be dependent on how much of this increase we're actually going to use, when we're going to use it, how we borrow it. What I can say from our current projections, right now, we're using banking overdraft, which is a much higher percentage. I do believe it's around prime plus one, so that's about 4.95 percent right now. Depending if we're using bank overdraft to our short-term rate, which is 1.97, I do believe, at the end of the day, even if we do this increase, if we use the instruments available to us at a lower cost, it...

Thank you, Madam Chair. In the information that we provided to Members, under the Stanton Regional Hospital, it says the 2019 total levy is around $4.5 million. That would be for a total year. Since the hospital came out in March, it is a partial year. When the partial year was estimated, it was around $3.5 million for this year. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Territorial Tobacco Products was consulted at this stage. They did provide a letter of reply to our consultation letter. They did make some comments around the purchase method, but none of the comments were about any capital concerns or any inventory concerns. They were about the overall control of the tobacco products and collecting the proper amount of tax revenues for tobacco products sold in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have invested a lot of money into this management system for both human resources and the financial system. They are both oracle-based systems.

This upgrade project would get us fully supported by the vendor until the year 2024. In a sense, it is a significant upgrade, but it keeps us supported with that vendor until 2024, which is a significant time away. Thank you, Mr. Chair.