Negotiations, not previously authorized, $24,000.
Agreed.
Implementation, not previously authorized, $5,000.
Agreed.
Intergovernmental relations, not previously authorized, $8,000.
Agreed.
Total Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, operations expenditures, $52,000, not previously authorized.
Agreed.
Thank you. Department of Finance, operations expenditures, deputy minister’s office, not previously authorized, $875,000.
Agreed.
Fiscal policy, not previously authorized, $711,000. Mr. Bromley and then Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe this was the Housing Corporation we were on and I’m wondering if I can get an explanation of the amount planned for the NWT Energy Plan solar panel installation in Inuvik. What exactly is the Housing Corporation plan with solar panel installations? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That’s for $85,000 and that’s money that will be used for a nine-plex at the Bertha Allen public housing complex in Inuvik. Installation of solar panels on the roof would supply energy to the complex and operate the mechanical and electrical systems. Thank you.
Thank you. Sounds like a worthy project. I wonder, do we have any estimates of what efficiency this would gain over the normal course of events and/or do we plan to install monitoring so that we can learn valuable lessons and collect useful data on which to base future similar decisions? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The payback is estimated to be five years, and yes, with the solar technology available, when they’ve measured the technology available to measure the benefits, we’ll be looking to do that so we can learn from this investment. Thank you.
That’s all I had, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe we’re also on fiscal policy. I believe that number has been read out, Madam Chair?
Actually, I’m going to call deputy minister’s office again for $875,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you. Fiscal policy, not previously authorized, $711,000. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks for clarifying. I want to zone in on the comment regarding the $700,000 line entry in this expenditure, and it reads, “To provide funding to address an increase in the cost of living tax credit expense due to a higher personal income forecast.” So I guess my first question is: What is driving the anticipated increases in personal income tax revenues? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Kalgutkar.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The forecast is this normal forecast that we get from Finance Canada, and the current projections from what Finance Canada are indicating are personal income taxes are higher than we initially projected. Thank you.
Thank you. So I guess what we’re hearing is that this is a statistical variance. Are there any other mitigating factors or forces that are driving this forecast?
Thank you. What the forecast is indicating is the amount of personal income tax fillers is likely to increase, and that means our personal income tax revenues have also corresponded to the increase as well. Thank you.
Using the second line of that bullet it says, “The net effect on government operations is nil as there will be an offsetting revenue amount.” Could we get layman’s terms as to what does that mean? Thank you.
Thank you. This is, as the Member will recall, when you go to our ‘12-13 Main Estimates budget, this is based on the change in how we account for the corporate income tax credit. The credit is now reported as an expense against the Department of Finance’s appropriation, and then the offsetting revenue is also recorded under our revenues. So there’s no net impact. Thank you.
Great, I appreciate the explanation there. So I guess the ultimate question here is: What impact does this have, or is this being incorporated into the fiscal framework and would we be anticipating an updated fiscal forecast?
Thank you. As we prepare our ‘13-14 budget, we will be updating our revenue forecasts. The next update from Finance Canada is, if I recall, in the first week of December and then we’ll see our updated fiscal framework when we present them with our ‘13-14 budget in early January. Thank you.
Again, I appreciate the explanation. Going back to what was said just a couple of minutes ago regarding the new accounting or public accounting practices that this government and many other governments were subjected to in causing a lot of changes in the way monies are being allocated and descriptions, what would be the anticipated… Are we going to possibly see a corrective fact like this ongoing, or is this just a year where we’re going to see this type of net impact being an offset of revenue? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Member for that question. The unions are continually working with the public sector accounting board, the accounting board that drives account policy for governments. And our view to them is a lot of these changes, they’re making public accounts much more difficult for the ordinary reader to read because of these types of adjustments. We have regular dialogue with the accounting body and we are working with other governments to ensure that accounting rules are being much more clear in the future.
No further questions.
Fiscal policy under the Department of Finance, not previously authorized, $711,000.
Agreed.
Budget, treasury and debt management, not previously authorized, $34,000.
Agreed.
Office of the comptroller general, not previously authorized, $43,000.
Agreed.
Office of the chief information officer, not previously authorized, $10,000.
Agreed.
Total department, Finance, operations expenditures, not previously authorized, $1.673 million.
Agreed.
Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures, directorate, not previously authorized, $22,000.
Agreed.
Public safety, not previously authorized, $8,000.
Agreed.
Community operations, not previously authorized, $18,000.
