Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. We have only really just begun the internal process of looking at what the fiscal framework and fiscal policy will be, going forward. I can say, quite honestly, it is not an overt intention by any stretch to maintain a higher short-term borrowing policy or short-term borrowing limit. I am also cognizant that there seems a trend only ever upwards, and so, while I can't say what the final number will be now, the entirety of that number is still under discussion and evaluation. The intent is to look at the totality of what is happening and get a better handle on it and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is an appeal mechanism. To my limited knowledge, and I will just verify it, I don't know that the government has made use of that appeal mechanism. To the knowledge of the witnesses present, Madam Chair, that is not something that is generally done. This is a policy whereby the primary principal of the policy is to provide fair compensation for municipal services to the various community governments. I imagine there would be some hesitancy in general by most departments to challenge an assessment that we are part of creating.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps, to be more specific, I can't answer the Member's number in terms of right now at this moment. I can say that, since this program started in 2013, there have been 13 groups in total. Of those, 135 individuals were registered; 28 have completed. The last group just completed back in November of this year, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The simple answer is that the health authorities have limited and challenged capacity to pay the money back. That is the reason for which the Department of Finance is working with them in order to try to ensure that their own internal fiscal frameworks are as responsible, going forward, as possible.

There are a number of initiatives underway currently, partnered between Finance and the health authority, to this purpose, one example of which is the "towards a better future" initiative. That is something that has been organized between the health department and health...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, the only reason that the Department of Finance has received in terms of when we evaluate a submission like this coming forward, certainly, is that there wasn't a lot of flexibility at this stage of the fiscal year remaining for MACA and that, at this stage of the fiscal year, they had already used up a lot of their available room in terms of their support for community governments and grants-in-lieu, et cetera, so, while certainly in their total budget, there might have been some flexibility. Being where we are now here in the fall, late fall, there was limited...

That kind of a consideration is not currently within the department's purview of projects underway right now. That said, there are a number of things that the department is doing to try to improve the speed of which small northern businesses are being paid. There are a number of things that can be done and a number of steps that can be taken to improve that process, not the least of which would be to just encourage the vendors themselves to be using e-mail, to be directing things, fulsome information, as well, Mr. Speaker, to ensure that our departments know that those vendors invoices go...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Even at present, this is probably a few days old. The current forecast of the department is to be in a slight decrease in overall cash flow by the end of the fiscal. What we are able to have repaid will depend very much on what revenues we are able to get back in.

I can assure the Member that the request to make this part of the short-term borrowing limit would stand only until the end of the fiscal year. To the extent that there would be a total increase in the short-term borrowing limit, that may well be changed significantly in time for the next fiscal strategy so...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I am hesitant always to put other departments on the spot, but I would certainly expect that we likely have that information within Finance, and so, to the extent that I can provide some further chronology on when that taxation information was received, the Department of Finance will certainly endeavour to see what information we have .

Madam Chair, that's correct. The number that we settled on in terms of coming forward to the Assembly is one that we thought was certainly as low as possible, but while retaining sufficient flexibility, looking at the projected cash flows from now to the end of just this fiscal year, again.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Finance does attempt to pay all vendors within 30 days, which I would suggest is really an industry standard. It allows an opportunity to due diligence on the materials that are presented in support of an invoice, in addition to which the goal in fact is to pay BIP members or BIP businesses within 20 days, a standard that we are working towards. So that is the rationale, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.