Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. Today, my Member's statement is going to be about expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr, and I'm going to attempt it in French. [English translation starts] today it’s good news in my Member’s Statement. For anyone driving or walking along Taylor Road here in Yellowknife, something new is happening. The long awaited expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr is underway and the work space has now been closed in. When completed, this work will finally give francophone students in Yellowknife access to the same facilities enjoyed by other children in our community. This was a...

Okay. Thanks, Mr. Chair. So over a 15-year period. I guess I was hoping for something shorter than that, but the amount that gets charged back to the revolving fund, does it include the interest on the short-term debt or any interest related to the special warrant? Does it get charged back to the revolving fund? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So perhaps one last question: is the department looking at what the supplementary reserve is going to be for 2018-2019? Is it the same level? Or what sort of lessons learned are there when this goes into $7.5 million of debt? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So given that the supplementary reserve, then, is in a deficit position, how does that show up as debt in our accounts? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to speak to the principle of this bill. It was a month ago that I gave my reply to the budget address. What has changed since then in terms of the 2018-2019 budget now that we have an appropriation bill in front of us?

I want to talk a little bit about the budget process. The reductions in this budget are not as drastic as in the previous two fiscal years, but Cabinet continues to cut programs and services to build larger surpluses to spend on infrastructure projects or roads to resources. The promised spending in the last two years of our mandate is limited...

I would like to thank the Minister for that. My understanding was, and look, I'm not an expert on the territorial formula funding arrangement, but my understanding was that, if we introduce a new tax, we get to keep the revenues from that for the first three years and then it gets rolled into our base and sort of clawed back through the arrangement. Is there going to be the ability to change that sort of provision of the arrangement, so that we get to keep more of our own source revenues in the future?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Until that happens, we will just continue to have to top up the pension fund. For 2017-2018, it is almost $1 million. Does anybody from the department know how much we have spent to top up the pension fund period over a number of years? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I'd like to ask some questions of the Minister of Finance about the renewal of our territory formula funding arrangement. Buried on page 317 of the federal budget, there is this set of curious numbers and so on. It says, "Proposed renewal of equalization and territorial formula funding for a five-year period, with technical changes to improve accuracy and efficiency of calculation of entitlements," and so on. So this seems to indicate that our territory formula funding arrangement is going to be renewed for another five years, as is. I'm just wondering if the...

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the deputy minister's response. That is the information I've got in front of me. It looks like the reserve is going to be reduced by $15 million, but this supplementary appropriation is for over $20 million for our out-of-territory patients. It looks like we would still run, if everything else being equal, there would still be a $5 million deficit next year. How is the reduction in the reserve calculated to go down just $15 million rather than, say, $20? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

While I am on a roll here, I want to thank the Premier for that, as well. It would be good to know if negotiations have started and whether there is a target date or any other kind of details on the process. Can the Premier tell us whether he is aware of any further progress on the issue of an apology and compensation for the damages from the Giant Mine?