Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. In the department's business plan and in the mandate, there are a number of issues related to increasing capacity in the healthcare system, and there is a specific health recruitment unit. Can I just get clarification whether that lies in the Department of Finance HR or in Health and Social Services? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That's unfortunate. We seem to be stuck in this never-ending cycle of getting a notice to bargain and then bargaining taking years so we can never amend the Public Service Act, and then we get another notice to bargain.

Is it possible to seek agreement from the union to bring the act forward even while there is a notice of bargain or to make the change that allows us to bring the act forward despite that happening? I'm just trying to see if there is a workaround with the union's consent because they themselves have identified some changes that that they would like for...

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Lastly, we are projected to go over our debt ceiling. I recognize we're not anywhere near our five percent overall debt servicing finances of Fiscal Responsibility Policy, but I think that number is a little skewed in that we fund half of our infrastructure usually with debt, and then we switch to P3s. The full amount that we actually owe under P3s given the contractual obligations isn't really reflected as debt, and I think this is creating an incentive for us to use P3s. It seems every project over $50 million, we're going to use as a P3, which means we're going...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps, I could just ask one more question of that. Obviously, a key factor in the total cost of any P3 is the contract and the maintenance contract. If we have a deal with the private sector to pay them X amount of dollars each year under the P3, does that show up as our debt, the contractual obligation? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at the Department of Finance's website on this. It says 1,943 individuals have benefited from this program, which is the number I had in my head, which is a much more significant percentage of our work force. I believe our work force, if that's more accurate, is about 2,000 workers who make under $18 an hour, which is below living wage, which means 2,000 working people live in poverty. Can I just get a confirmation of how many people have accessed this program? I don't think it's a fair characterization to say that not many people in our territory are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. What I would like to see in the fiscal strategy is a number, a kind of a hard stop of where we are going to be at the end of this Assembly. Right now, the projection is that we're going to be over our debt wall. I recognize what the Minister said there, that there's a number of plans in the works and we're looking at revenues. I am concerned that I am passing a budget with adding more debt, and I am on the projection to pass, succeed a debt limit that does not leave us any room for emergencies. When all that work is done and when we do the new fiscal management, when...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just get clarification: Those 390 applicants would be employers; do we have a sense of how many actual people are getting their paycheques topped up right now? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see that we are adding quite a bit of debt this year once again. Can I just get current projections of when we are expected to hit our debt ceiling? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. I wish that perhaps the chief information officer could direct people or the Department of Finance could direct departments. I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent here about digital government. Essentially, there are governments where all of your information is stored in one area, and you log on to fill out an income assistance form, and all of the government data that it is already holding populates the form automatically. Actually, some of those governments have policies that they can never ask you for a piece of information twice. They can never ask you what...

I am concerned about the timing of all of this. If we are waiting for the working group and the terms of reference in each department, here we sit in another session without a meaningful piece of legislation to actually implement this, without any significant legislation which has devolved powers or changed the system of laws. I believe that we are behind on our legislative agenda. Has any legislation been identified that will bring forward declaration changes?