Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I have done regularly during my time as an MLA, I attended the parent advisory group meeting at Range Lake North School last evening. In listening to the parents, Mr. Speaker, I was reminded again -- and it is my job, I believe, to remind this House again -- about the situation of crowded classrooms in our Yellowknife schools.

Mr. Speaker, while the last Assembly made important progress in reducing the pupil-teacher ratio by legislation from some, I believe, 18:1 to about 16.5:1 and even in a shorter time frame than originally planned, this has not...

I would like to pose the same question under other expenses, $3.1 million. May I get a breakdown? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. May I get a breakdown on that $305,000 under other expenses, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've been commending the Minister for two days now for working with realistic numbers, and now I'm being told here we're working with best numbers. So I hope his best assumptions work out here, because the reduction of the insurance premium from $2 million to $1.6 million is quite drastic.

Having said that, I have further questions about insurance in general, understanding that this department not only takes care of the insurance coverage for the government and taking care of the risk management of government assets, but also it regulates the insurance industry and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have some questions on the opening statement with regard to the insurance issues. I need to know more about this. On the first page, we are seeing a reduction in the amount of $1.6 million plus, because of a reduction in premium costs. Later on, we also see a decrease in our short-term interest costs because of changing estimates of the government's cash requirements. I don't understand this, because from all indications that we have seen we are still borrowing a lot. So I would like to know more details about what this is about. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So that increase as a result of taxation does not go into the revolving fund. It goes into our general revenue. Does it go in here? Where would that show up on this page?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question on his opening statement, Madam Chair. Perhaps I should begin by commenting and congratulating the Minister for putting a very positive face on some parts of what was not the good-news budget he delivered yesterday. I do believe though it is a good budget in that the Minister has made his best efforts to grapple with our current financial situation.

There is no question that we have to work together to address some of these difficult issues, so that if some good news were to happen from the federal government or in any other areas, we will find...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could the Minister advise us as to what the increase was from the increase in taxes on alcohol? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to know more about what result came about the last time the GNWT took the federal government to court on this issue. The Minister mentioned that they did come to the table. Can the Minister advise as to exactly what they came to the table with? Was this government able to get any money out of that, any concessions on the rules, anything like that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question on the increase in the income under liquor sales. May I ask the Minister as to whether or not the increase projected for this year is a result of consumption or could it be because of an increase in taxes that we had introduced? Thank you.