Rylund Johnson

Yellowknife North

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I recognize that, when we want to attract good talent, we have to pay bonuses. My concern is that there is no transparency in how much those are. They're not even budgeted for. I would like a commitment from the Department of Finance that we will publicly disclose what we paid last year for bonuses, and we can get some sort of transparency going forward on what that amount is.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at a human resources policy, the pay for performance, and I see in there that we are allowed to apply bonuses to our excluded employees. Is that budgeted for at all in our main estimates?

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you. I guess that doesn't answer my question of: we have here interest rate of between 4 and 6.42 percent, and then we even have interest rates between 9 and 10 percent. What is it about debentures, a long-term-held debt, that we're paying 10 percent on? Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Beginning with a general question: can the Minister of Finance provide the total cost of our debt servicing in these main estimates? Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, I understand. We are paying $33 million a year. A percentage of that goes to principal, and a percentage of that goes to interest. Perhaps the Minister can commit to breaking down that further. I am just looking for some simple numbers I can repeat so I understand how much it costs us to keep borrowing this amount of money. Is that possible?

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

I recognize, perhaps, the Minister can't commit to developing a piece of legislation right now, but to pretend like this hasn't been happening for years; I've read a statement today from my predecessor's predecessor in 2011 requesting this. The department has the information. This involves the Housing Corporation. It involves the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, and the expertise lies in Infrastructure. What I am looking for from the Minister of Infrastructure is to reach out to all the relevant parties, all the professionals, and get back to the committee with a plan on how we...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I guess I'm looking for a breakdown when I look at the Main Estimates 2019-2020, and then they were revised to be lower, and what the cause in that $11 million drop is, and if that was due largely to lack of cannabis sales.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today, my Members' statement was on the building standards act. In our mandate, we are committed to implementing the 2030 Energy Strategy, something that I am very excited about, Mr. Speaker. Object 5 of the 2030 Energy Strategy is to increase residential, commercial, and government buildings' energy efficiency, by 15 percent. My question is for the Minister of Infrastructure: will the implementation of the action plan for the 2030 Energy Strategy include developing a building standards act such that we can ensure that those buildings meet that 15-percent target...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think it's clear I'm not going to get a commitment out of you, but once again I find myself, here I am, passing $1 million to an Internal Audit Bureau, and I have no idea what they do. I have no ability to ever see any reports that they produce. I have no ability to know if they're good work, and I guess that troubles me. I think that it's a larger issue of, simply, if we are auditing ourselves, why is that not public information? I'll leave that as a comment, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We need to establish territory-wide building standards to meet the cost of climate changes today. While the standards of the national Modern Energy Building Code are required, there are no assurances that these standards are met due to the lack of small-community inspections and enforcement systems.

Project management capacity at the community level is also a concern, Mr. Speaker. For example, there is no guarantee that a new community building won't be sited on permafrost for lack of a geotechnical survey. This raises major concerns. Public safety can be put at risk...