Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm following up on a commitment from the Minister of Finance who is responsible for the Chief Information Officer of a commitment to have an open government portal for the GNWT. My question is: when can we expect to see that open government portal? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Where I am going with this is that the GNWT is the anchor tenant in most of Northview's building. It's in downtown Yellowknife. My understanding is that we built a new government building because we understood it was cheaper for us to own our buildings as opposed to leasing them from large southern REITs. My question is specific to class A commercial office spaces. Is it cheaper for us to own it than it is to lease it right now at market rates in Yellowknife? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I always have questions. The Department of Infrastructure under this section administers the Leasing of Improved Real Property, essentially the policy that controls how we lease all our property. This policy is from 1998, and I think it's a little outdated in regard to the work we are doing on procurement review. Is there any intention and a timeline to update the Leasing of Improved Real Property Policy? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at page 197, and I see that the Territorial Health Investment Fund about the medical travel and oral health and cultural competencies are expiring. My understanding is that this started in 2015 and went to 2018, and then the federal government once again announced, kind of, a new program to bring us to 2021. Are there any discussions or any talk of another Territorial Health Investment Fund, or is this fund simply sunsetted with no plans by the federal government to replace it? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. I am going to switch a bit. I have seen different numbers at different times of what the cost per kilometre is. Is there a cost built into replacement, as well? My understanding of the way roads work is that every 30 or 50 years they have to be replaced, and that is built into the amortization in a sense. We amortize the asset over a fixed number of years, but then we also have to replace it again. Is there anywhere in the budget where we are actually reflecting what it costs to replace a highway, beyond just the O and M? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I certainly look forward to the results of that. I think there is also a bit of a national conversation going on with pharmacare, and I think the department is also looking at what is driving health costs everywhere. That's obviously a national conversation. In that regard, I see both medical travel and Extended Health Benefits have quite significant increases from the revised estimates. I will start with: can we get a sense of what is driving the cost in Extended Health Benefits? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was hoping the Minister would help me understand what the threshold -- in our capital budget, there are a number of highways things. Sometimes, there is chipsealing; sometimes, there is completely rebuilding a highway, a bridge -- just kind of understanding the threshold of what this $85 million of highway operations is spent versus when it all of a sudden gets kicked into becoming a capital expense, what that threshold is. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My hope is one day the federal government will extend NIHB to Metis benefits and then that frees up $3 million in our budget, and perhaps we can then find a way to extend it to those 2,200 other people. Along those lines, I look forward to the department doing that work and hopefully getting a cost estimate. Has any work been done about a jurisdictional scan? Are there any other jurisdictions out there who provide some sort of supplementary health benefits to their citizens? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I got a bit of a win from the Minister of ECE about looking into lowering the voting age for the Education Act, which covers our school boards, but I think this step is also appropriate at the community level. My question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Is she willing to support our youth and lower the voting age for municipal elections? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I hoped to also ask questions of the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, so maybe if we change the enumeration there, then, they'll line up. I think the other option here would be to give the school boards the option of whether they want to lower it themselves and let them decide. As part of the Education Act, is the Minister willing to reach out to the DEAs and see if they have any input on lowering the voting age or any of the changes to how they run their elections?