Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re almost at the end of it, but February is Heart Month and, unfortunately, every 26 minutes a Canadian suffers a sudden cardiac arrest. It happens without warning, to anyone, anywhere, killing more Canadians each year than car accidents, diabetes and breast and prostate cancer combined. Without help, sudden cardiac arrest victims have just minutes to live. Each minute that passes decreases their chance of survival by nearly 10 percent. It’s scary that the majority of people killed by sudden cardiac arrest have no history of heart disease.

Eighty-five percent of all...

Thanks to the Minister for the explanation. My understanding was the review was looking at the programs of BDIC. My question goes to a bigger picture to the whole issue of duplication of services. Is that something that is/was part of the review? If not, is it something that the Minister will consider in addition to this current review? Thank you.

Thanks to the deputy minister for that. I guess in my effort to make the budget as easy to understand as possible, I’m not sure why we would need two items here. I appreciate that this is a five-year limited time contribution, but I don’t quite understand why we couldn’t add it into the first one – t’s still a contribution to NWT Tourism – and then just reduce the amount if it’s not renewed after the five years, but I’ll leave it at that. Thank you, just a comment.

My last question then. The fund is going to be wrapped up by the end of this fiscal year, so that would be ’13-14, that’s why there’s no anticipated activity or revenue in ’14-15. Is that correct?

Thanks to the deputy minister. So, if I understood correctly, the corresponding expense is found in the Department of Finance. Is that correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, want to thank Mr. Dolynny for bringing the motion forward. I am fully in support of this and as Mr. Bromley said, this is not a new idea, it has been discussed a number of times over the years and certainly before my time as well.

Annually, when we look at the budget, we stress over the highs and lows of our revenues and particularly around corporate income tax and then this year, as well, around personal income tax, so this idea would certainly allow us to have a much easier time when we discuss fiscal planning and fiscal strategy. It would certainly allow us to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. My first question on this page has to do with the capital transfers. We’ve got a huge increase from $265,000 to $2.7 million. So what accounts for this grand increase in capital transfers?

Thanks to the Minister for the info. I understand the $6.8 million in passive restraint. That is a number that I can deal with. Capping our forced growth at 2 percent, how much money does that net us? I’m trying to get us up to the $30 million or whatever that we need to find to balance the budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for advising me of that. I’m not suggesting that the government needs to be totally responsible, but legislation, if we put it in place, certainly would provide the need for people to buy and install AEDs. This is a difficult situation. Obviously, GNWT does not have any kind of a policy, we don’t have any department, from the sounds of things, that is responsible for this particular issue.

I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not he would be willing to commit to discussing this issue with Cabinet, whether or not he could then, after discussion...

I think it’s getting slightly less murky. So, we’re still working with an estimate of revenues for ’14-15, so it could go down at any time, I guess, or in May we’ll get a better idea and it could go down. If I understand rightly, the $30 million that the Minister has referenced that we’ve lost is basically revenue in this current budget year. It sounds to me like the revenue we expected in the ’13-14 year didn’t come through. Am I right on that? Thank you.