Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I think having some public reporting on this is just a small part. We're being sued for $107 million. I have absolutely no idea. There is no public information about who or why that is. If we all of a sudden have $107 million show up in our budget, none of us are going to be happy. I suspect that a lot of this is from P3 legacy projects and contract disputes. I know there's some various class actions out there. I'm guessing really, based on news headlines, as to why we might all of a sudden owe $107 million.

Furthermore, I think the GNWT has absolutely refused to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would ask that, you know, even if the government disagrees with this motion, they could try to explain what was going on. The auditor general told us that the Old Stanton was a P3, and the GNWT accountants disagreed. We had a battle of the experts going on in committee. And I don't know public accounting standards well enough, or the new P3 standards well enough, but to me when the Auditor General of Canada tells you something is away, according to the public accounts, you listen to them. So I would like to hear a bit more of a detailed response to this motion. Thank...

Madam Chair, the committee's report was read into the record on December 2nd, 2021. I do not have any additional substantive comments to add at this time. Individual Members may have comments on the report. I'd like to thank committee, the department, and the auditor general for their work on this report. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I empathize with the concern that we had 22 priorities, and that was too many, and the future Assembly should aim to have less. But I am still not convinced that if we had less priorities we would be in a much better situation. I think there is a bit of a bellwether, that we're at our halfway mark and then there's a sense of frustration in this House. Notably, we have been in a global pandemic and steering the GNWT ship is a difficult task and COVID has not made that easier. But, Mr. Speaker, I believe we have to pick some of those priorities and get them done. And to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We came into this Assembly and we had a pretty tight fiscal situation, and so I have a dream. I have a dream of leaving the next Assembly $100 million of room in their debt ceiling. Enough to pay for a bad forest fire season or a flood but probably not both, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we are on track to spend more money than any Assembly in history. We are on track to also add more debt than any Assembly in history. This budget is worth $500 million, Mr. Speaker.

And, you know, I actually have very little issue with the individual projects in here. You know, an NWT budget...

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the comptroller general, in consultation with the Office of the Auditor General of Canada and the Standing Committee on Government Operations, study potential changes to the public accounts to make them more user friendly and accessible while ensuring a high degree of transparency and accountability from the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the comptroller general add to the financial statement discussion and analysis section of the public accounts several reporting items that are present in public accounts of other jurisdictions; specifically,

Population data;

Unemployment rates;

Key nonfinancial results of major sectors;

Variances between budget and actuals and between current and prior year actuals by revenue source;

Variances between budget and actuals between current and prior year actuals by expense program and object;

Discussion details on each liability line item; and,

Clas...

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...