Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. I move that committee defer further consideration of the Executive and Indigenous Affairs main estimates. Thank you.

Thanks, Madam Chair. The first line item here, government chief information officer, the revised estimates for 2020-2021 showed $2.8 million, and then otherwise, it's usually around $385. Can someone explain to me what happened in that, the current year, to make that such a large expense? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Like my colleague from Yellowknife North, I believe that the potential for P3s is starting to create an incentive to do large infrastructure projects in that way so that we take some of the long-term debt off the books, so to speak, and put it into long-term contracts that affect our capacity for O and M spending. I do think it's starting to create an incentive do to that, and I'm not sure, with all of the criticism that there has been in the past in other jurisdictions about P3s, that that's a great way to proceed.

I do think I want to take the Minister up on that...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate that commitment, and it would be great if that kind of information could be made available to the public, as well. The loan guarantees line toward the bottom of this page, can someone explain what that is about? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes. I, too, am concerned about the NTPC bond issuance. This is new debt. I know that we ran into a problem last year where bonds were issued for new debt and Regular MLAs didn't really feel that we had been properly informed that it was going to be through a bond issuance, so I appreciate the increased transparency with the borrowing plan this year. How is a member of the public supposed to understand what this bond issuance is really for the NTPC? Is there a publicly available list of what these assets or what this capital stuff is supposed to be? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. She really did not answer my question about how to increase the money going into the Heritage Fund, so I guess I will try it again. As we approach the 10-year mandatory review, what is the Minister going to propose to ensure that we capture and retain a fair share of resource revenues for future generations? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank the Minister for that. It would be much more helpful, in my view, if these could be tabled separately somehow in the House so people could actually know that they are publicly available. Having them buried in public accounts is not very transparent. However, the purpose of the Heritage Fund was "to ensure that future generations of people of the Northwest Territories benefit from ongoing resource development, including the development of non-renewable resources." With less than $30 million after almost 10 years and on resources worth over $18 billion, clearly, we have...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I encourage all my fellow Regular MLAs to use this opportunity to set forth their views on the budget, our fiscal situation, and how to translate our priorities and mandate into action through this second budget of the 19th Assembly. Of course, our priorities have changed with the pandemic, and while I encourage Cabinet to stay focused on that emergency, the mandate should not constrain what we need to do. We also cannot possibly achieve everything in the mandate, either. I will make some suggestions as to how to better focus our work going forward to ensure...

Thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks for that information. I am kind of surprised that we did not actually have a program evaluation framework or some kind of evaluation framework prepared in anticipation of this change. Can I get a commitment out of the Minister that she is going to share what she can at this point with what these performance measures are that have been identified and a timeline to actually get this evaluation done? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Is it just an accounting thing that it shows up in Finance rather than ECE? Thanks, Madam Chair.