Rylund Johnson

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will ask a follow-up question to Finance sometime about what that number is actually looking like and how big of a liability it is to be added to our books. Can I just get clarification of whether asset management is where I would find the deferred maintenance budget, and if so, how much deferred maintenance is in the operations budget? Thank you, Madam Chair.

I think, perhaps, the Minister should also ask the department update her briefing note because I'm going to read from the June transcript where it says by the Minister, "I will have a timeline by the time we are back in the fall as to how exactly this is going to unfold." "Fall" being 2020 there. We're in 2021, Mr. Speaker. My question is: what is the timeline for getting that timeline back to the House?

Thank you, Madam Chair. The current policy allows us to lease buildings off northern-owned landlords if we think we can pay an extra 10 percent on the cost of leasing. I think that is fair, and I don't mind paying a little bit more on leases of northern-owned buildings. I would note that I do not believe that the money we are paying the southern REITs, which is millions and millions of dollars, is actually cheaper than owning the buildings or cheaper than renting off a northern landlord. I question whether we are even in compliance with our leasing of improved real property policy. Can the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Consensus government, at its core, has a transparency problem, and it not an easy problem to solve without all of us in this House making some sacrifices for the public good. In our system, Regular MLAs are awarded a great deal of input into decision making. We see draft budgets, draft business plans, draft budgets, and draft legislative proposals, and we are given ample time to comment and provide input to those draft decisions. In many cases, Mr. Speaker, Cabinet actually listens to Regular MLAs, and I commend them for that. I understand that some Assemblies have done...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Housing Corporation previously conducted some analysis of whether it was cheaper to build public housing or to lease it, and they determined, ultimately, in the long run, it was cheaper for them to build and own their infrastructure. I note that our lease policy requires us to undertake a lease-versus-own analysis of all of the GNWT properties to see whether it's cheaper. In general, does the department have a sense of whether it's cheaper for us to own or lease our buildings? I note we built some very large office towers, such as the new government building, before...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think we all look forward to the outcomes of those discussions, so perhaps just a commitment from the Minister that, when we have an answer or a response from the federal government on the Territorial Health Investment Fund going forward, that it will be shared with the appropriate committee. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think one of the side effects of this pandemic is that we took a hard look at what medical travel was necessary. I know there has been work in the past for the department to sometimes avoid appointments in Edmonton where it's simply a pre-surgery consultation that takes an hour, and then that person flies back. I know the department spoke earlier about a couple of great initiatives happening in terms of Telehealth and digital health. I am concerned that I am seeing $2 million here, and I am seeing continued driving costs for medical travel. When can we expect some...

Thank you, Madam Chair. That makes sense. I always forget amortization is found in the O and M budget, so that is where that $55 million came from. Do we have an estimate of what it costs us to maintain a highway per kilometre? I recognize that is not an easy figure and that it varies depending on the highway and it varies depending on whether it's an ice road, but I am wondering if we, in some of our highways reporting, have a rough estimate of what we spend per year to maintain our highways based on kilometres or some sort of distance metric. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will just end with a comment in that I think we are a very unique jurisdiction in that half our population automatically falls under NIHB, and then the largest employer in the territory is the GNWT and their dependents. We end up extending health benefits to numerous other people. We end up with these 2,200 working poor who don't get health benefits. If you did this analysis, I imagine any other jurisdiction except, perhaps, Nunavut, it just wouldn't be feasible to provide everyone benefits with such a small amount of money. I just would encourage the Minister, during...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will just reiterate my previous comment. I think that there is $32 million being spent here, and a hard look needs to be taken at it and then updating that policy. Can I get an explanation for the $5 million increase to highway operations, what that is going to accomplish? Thank you, Madam Chair.