Kevin O'Reilly

Frame Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thanks, Madam Chair. Maybe I can start with there is a mandated 10-year review required of the Heritage Fund Act that is going to take place during the life of this Assembly. Can the Minister tell us what her department is doing to get ready for that review? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

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.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thanks, Madam Chair. The Minister is great because she has actually anticipated my next question. If we haven't done an evaluation on Shared Corporate Services, what kind of assurance can the Minister give me that the ISSS, or whatever we want to call it, is actually working as it has been touted? I want to know whether the evaluation was done on the Shared Corporate Services unit and if that can be shared with us. The next question, which she has anticipated, is: what is the evaluation framework for the ISSS, or whatever it is called? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

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...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

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.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

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.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

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.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

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?

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

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.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

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.