Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. I don't think I got an answer to my question. Are there going to be any capital projects at the Yellowknife Airport this summer that start to draw down the surplus? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. The Support for Entrepreneurs and Economic Development, or SEED, program is promoted as "one part of the Government of the Northwest Territories' ongoing investment in a diverse, sustainable economy." This is obviously increasingly important as we move towards economic recovery from the pandemic.

The Assembly passed an interim budget that included the first quarter of operational funds for each department on March 16. Some departments also received all of their grants and contributions funding, including Industry, Tourism and Investment. This was done in...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm not interested in having the money spent somewhere else. This was a big debate and discussion around setting this up in the first place that, if people were going to start paying fees to land and take off in Yellowknife, the money was supposed to stay in Yellowknife for the improvement of this airport. I still didn't get an answer: when is the 20-year capital fund going to be completed? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'd like to get an explanation of the growing accumulated surplus in this fund, which now stands, at the end of 2020-20201, at almost $45 million. There was a lot of debate and discussion in setting this up as a revolving fund. I even voted against the bill because I think there was insufficient transparency and governance for this fund, stakeholder involvement, and so on. Why is the accumulated surplus going to be $45 million at the end of this year? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. If I understand it, the purpose of this was to -- I'm just looking at the top of the page, of course, as well -- try to stabilize the price of fuel in communities and so on. Right now, at one point, you could take a barrel of oil and somebody would pay you $37 to actually take it away. How do we use this fund in a way that tries to stabilize the price for our communities and takes advantage of when oil was really low there for a while? Are we that nimble or quick that we could actually use this money in a way to bring down the cost of fuel in our communities? Thanks, Madam...

Thanks, Madam Chair. If you look at the bottom of the page itself, this fund is in a deficit of a lot of money. What is going on? Why does this fund have such a large accumulated deficit, $1 million? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. The line before that, travel. I know this is a big department. I guess people are travelling all over the place, but $850,000 for travel. What kind of travel are we talking about there? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Are we also dealing with the revolving fund pages that follow that? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes. I, too, support the bill. After the House stopped our earlier sitting on March 16th, we had about one week off, but then we started to meet, at least as Regular MLAs, using different kinds of videoconferencing services. I think we found ways to make it work, and we got better as we went along, over the several weeks that we tried meeting virtually, at least as a committee. My preference would have been that we had attempted to do this sitting in that manner, as well, but this bill will help enable future Assemblies to have the availability of meeting by...

I want to thank the Minister for that. Maybe that information might be posted to the ITI website so that members of the public would actually know, as well. The one-page, seven-principles guideline for 2020-2021 SEED funding is for a range between $30,000 and $75,000. The new guideline is not reflected in the application form or the ministerial policy that was approved in 2019. It seems to me to be a little bit behind the times. Can the Minister explain why the SEED application form and the ministerial policy has not been updated to reflect the new guideline?