Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. One of the things that we have heard about in terms of human resources that has caused some concerns are the number of direct appointments. Can the Minister commit to provide a table showing the number of direct appointments by year and by department, say, for the last couple years, and if there is some overall rationale as to why direct appointments are done? That would be very helpful to get. Can the Minister commit to provide that and table it in the House? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Look, I just don't know. How close are the Yukon and Nunavut to their borrowing limits, and are they part of these discussions, as well? Thanks, Madam Chair.

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.

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.

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. I had someone approach me, actually, last night who has 48 chickens here in Yellowknife. They would like to give away some of the eggs or maybe even sell some of the eggs locally, but there seem to be some issues around that. How are the items here going to help that individual be able to sell eggs locally? Thanks, Madam Chair.