Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. I am not sure I should say if I am less or more optimistic than the Minister, but she's got her hands on the numbers. Have we actually written to or formally requested an increase in the borrowing limit? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, so this is part of the problem. I tried to get this fixed in the last Assembly, and it's not. This is basically money that is at the complete discretion of Cabinet and doesn't even have to be used for energy investments. It can be used for whatever Cabinet wants to use it for, I guess, as approved by this Assembly. Do we actually have any rules yet set out for how the grants are going to be accessed? I know I asked the Minister in the House back in December about this issue. Are those rules or guidelines in place yet for accessing the grant money that is available...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I am glad to hear that the Minister is on this issue. The other one that has caused huge consternation for Northerners is the calculation of the lowest return airfare and the extremely high rates of audit that we seem to get subjected to. Has there been any movement on having the CRA actually fix the amount and tell people what it is so they don't have to try to guess about it? Has there been any progress made on that issue? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I think the Finance Minister in her budget address, and I'm sorry, I don't have that in front of me, said that we would exceed our federally set borrowing limit, probably next year or this year. Is that what this amount is that's shown here, total government borrowing? Is that this line here that is going to exceed $1.3 billion? I guess it would be in the next year, that's what the projections are. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Just generally in here, though, I see that the carbon tax offset is about $23 million, and some of it is, I guess, used for administration, or some portion of what is collected is used for administration. I guess, I look over at the revenue page, and maybe I'm not supposed to be looking over on page 134. I see it looks like we raise about $28.739 million of carbon tax and that we give back about $22.98 million in offsets. How much do we actually retain? How much are we actually going to retain this year, and what is it going to be used for? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. How is this contribution actually calculated? Is it just based on whatever budget the Housing Corporation comes up with, and the money is transferred, then, from the Department of Finance? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair, and sorry for being out of step. The loan guarantees that are listed at the bottom there under other public agencies, can someone tell me what that is all about? Thanks Madam Chair?

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess I will start on one of my favourite topics, and that's the lack of transparency with regard to the carbon tax. Here, on page148, we have carbon tax offset for 2021 at $22,988,000. On the next page, it's a different figure. It's out by maybe $12,000 or something. Should those be the same? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I do have a few questions around this section. On page 138, the contribution to the NWT Housing Corporation, if you compare 2020-2021 to the actuals or revised estimates from previous years, it actually shows a reduction. Can someone explain to me why we would be reducing our contribution to the NWT Housing Corporation, given the increasing need for more housing and better housing? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. It's all good news. That's great. No, I appreciate the Minister's response. Just one more thing that I want to say on this. It's not going to be the end of it, but when we are actually raising more money from tobacco and alcohol sales, cannabis sales, than we are from revenues that we get to retain from non-renewable resource development, there's something wrong with this picture, and I have said that in this House before.

Madam Chair, I want to move over to the borrowing plan, if I can. There is a line item in here at the bottom that says "loan guarantees." It's on page...