Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe there's a disconnect, and I'm trying to understand this number that shows up repeatedly. So the new units, I believe, are reflected in the revised estimates. That's why it's $60 million more, because the feds gave us $60 million and we're going to put housing units on the ground. But for 20222023, right now is the Housing Corp planning to build no new units; is that what this is? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I get an explanation of what, I just want to fully understand this number, what capital is. So the budget for the Housing Corp is about $109 million, $10 million is for just capital. Does that mean this is only for new builds and anything to maintain units or bring them up to standard would be not capital? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to have quite a few comments so I appreciate committee indulging me.

This was a private Member's bill brought forward by MLA O'Reilly. I thank him for doing that. It has started a lot of conversations in the department with industry, and within the committee. Ultimately this report has no recommendations and as noted by our chair, there wasn't the committee was not able to reach agreement on whether to proceed with it.

Firstly, I think there's a bit of a learning curve on how to deal with private Member's bills, and what exactly can be done in that case...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I suspect it's the boring explanation "due to software" that I am most interested in, Mr. Speaker. I note, on that list, was a very short list of services we're tracking wait times for and did not include a number of procedures and surgeries which is where I get most of my constituent complaints. I'm just wondering if there is any work to be done to create some sort of dashboard where that information is available publicly. I know this is done across all the provinces in Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the key indicators for evaluating how a health system works is wait times. And right now, you can go to every other jurisdiction or every province in Canada and look up their wait times. And I'd encourage people to do this. If you go to the BC one, it's actually quite an amazing database. You can see every single surgeon and how many procedures they currently have waiting, at which hospitals, at which region. You can see the number of weeks for every single procedure that could be scheduled in the health care system in live reported data, Mr. Speaker. And...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

While committee supports a review of the mining fiscal regime, there was not consensus how to approach this review to stimulate investment, maximize benefits and maintain competitiveness. Not all Members accepted the recommendations as presented in the report. Regardless committee submits the following recommendations to the GNWT for a response as suggested by Resources for Development Consulting.

The report's findings suggest that in determining how to improve the NWT’s mining fiscal regime, an analysis should be made publicly available that demonstrates how well the...

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, sorry. I did not understand that the assets would actually be transferred along with us just covering their insurance.

Can the Minister speak to any changes in how we anticipate funding to go with the assets? I know there's some longstanding contention about what when the school board owns an asset, they're responsible to maintenance costs up to a certain amount and then the GNWT is responsible after that amount. Do we expect the Yellowknife school boards to now be not responsible for any of that funding and be treated like all other school boards in regards to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I think committee received a lot of concerns that in order to get rid of power limiters, that was a tool that the utilities did not have to collect, and then further arrears would then be passed on to ratepayers. And in many ways, this recommendation that everybody preemptively get an extra charge on their bill for a customer crisis fund just to create some transparency to if you have arrears, ratepayers are going to pay for them anyway so why don't we provide some guidance and a clear way, path forward, that if someone lost their job or is in a very a crisis state...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, I guess I must have missed the Minister's announcement so glad we've resigned this deal. I see the deal runs to the 2025. What is the total cost of the deal? Thank you.