Rylund Johnson

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Finance undertake a review of their fiscal responsibility policy to ensure that the policy meets its objective for long-term fiscal sustainability.

And further, that the department provide the committee with an opportunity to comment on any proposed provisions to this policy. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the comptroller general enhance reporting in the public accounts of contingent liabilities arising from claims and litigation; and, further specifically,

A. Include a breakdown of claim amounts by category; and,

B. Identify individual claims above a certain threshold.

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends the Department of Finance classify the project to refurbish Old Stanton as a public private partnership and report on it accordingly. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The consultant pointed out that we are doing some things in this area, but we actually have a lot of room to expand into making sure that, as MLA Martselos noted, that Indigenous-owned corporations and their governments, you know, take equity stakes in mines. I think it's pretty clear that some of our dev corps are doing much better than others and have really built, you know, wealth and experience off of mining. But there's a lot to learn. I think a great jurisdiction to turn to is Alaska.

If you go to Alaska, nine out of the ten largest owned corporations are...

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this report within 120 days. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Committee conducted a review of best practices of public accounts across the jurisdiction and pulled these ones out. I would like to speak to a couple of them.

One, I really believe having ten years worth of data available from the public accounts would allow us to see these larger trends. It's just simply not really there.

Secondly, we make a number of recommendations of lining up the public accounts to the budget and the variances. There was some very odd disconnect that the public accounts are an accounting exercise done by the accountants. They don't even look at the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, we talk about the fiscal responsibility policy but we've heard the Department of Finance say that our current spending is unsustainable. There's clearly a disconnect between making sure that the policy works. I think it is doing certain things. I know that it limits us to, you know, funding 50 percent of infrastructure through operating surplus and then we usually reach right up to the other half with debt. And I think this is actually just created a push to use P3s, because they are not part of that analysis. So I think it's having unintended consequences...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is another one that in almost every other jurisdiction, the federal government has created a low income internet service which allows subsidized internet. Northwestel's parent company, Bell, has offered that in many jurisdictions. Northwestel has refused to do that here, once again because they're this weird federallyregulated monopoly. But I really do believe that there's a way to leverage the $10 million a year we give them to say, hey, we want to do what your parent company has agreed to do in other jurisdictions and make an internet rate for people who have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps the Minister can provide the House with an update of when that review is expected to be complete?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I'm going to try once again with my questions from the Member of Kam Lake. I think the Minister makes a great point of if you can put the museum arm's length, it can leverage more funding. Presently, we have a bunch of art staff working in GNWT as public servants. We have an arts council that distributes funding. I don't see how it costs any money to take all of that out of the public service and give it to an arm's length body that can then leverage public funding. In fact, I think we can probably save some money if we could do that.

Is the Minister willing to...