Thank you, Mr. Chair. On page 145, on the line that shows interest for Deh Cho bridge, it's gone up $200,000. So can the Minister explain if the cost for this bridge is going down? It seems to be going up for the last couple of years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Kalgutkar.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So for this year we're anticipating the interest costs for the bridge to go up slightly. The reason for that is the financing for the bridge was done through real return bonds. So real return bonds are linked to inflation, so our estimate is the CPI for the fiscal year is going to go up slightly so the interest costs for the bridge are anticipated to go up slightly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the assistant deputy minister for his answer. I guess, again, I see two areas of bank services, other program costs: can the Minister explain what these other program costs are? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Stewart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So again, you can see there is a whole list of detail provided out under "accounting services," and that's really the leftover amount that relates to the staff who are involved in government accounting operations and those sorts of things. So the bulk of that would be salary dollars for our accounting services division as well as a small amount of O and M. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for his answer. So I'm assuming that under Finance and Employment Shared Services other program costs are the same thing: salary and O and M? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the quick answer is yes, and I've made the commitment before that I'm going to work with the department, because the word "other" does open it up for questions and we'll take steps to rectify that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that commitment; it helps. I'm just trying to understand where it is, and I greatly appreciate the Minister is going to make that commitment; it will help maybe eliminate some of the questions in the future. So thanks, Mr. Chair; I'm done with this page. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Next, Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. What explains the variance in tax commissions between 2017 and this estimates document? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart.
--- related to how we are now accounting for the commissions that we are going to collect from the legislative proposal that we're going to do on where we collect our Tobacco Tax. So currently, the Tobacco Tax is collected at the retail level, I believe, and the proposed legislative change is going to collect it at the wholesale level, and because of that change we do not have to pay commissions on the tax that we are collecting. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this does suppose the passage of Bill 15? Yes. Sorry, it pre-supposes the passage. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Would the Minister like to comment?
I'll just say yes, it does, with committee's support.
---Laughter
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Good answer. I just wanted to be clear on that. Nothing further. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 146 we have the description there for the power subsidy program, and it's the program that provides subsidy for the residential electricity consumers outside of Yellowknife. Further to that, with regard to the GNWT subsidy for GNWT-owned assets outside of Yellowknife, is there a line item for that and where do we or where would we find that in the budget? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Stewart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe the Infrastructure Department would have the utilities budget for GNWT assets across the NWT, so I think that's where you would find the amounts that we're spending on utilities for our own assets. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.
That's great. I appreciate that. No further questions. Thank you
Thank you. Seeing nothing further I will call this activity. Finance, office of the Comptroller General, operations expenditure summary, total activity, $68,684,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Please return to page 127 for the total department. Oh, thank you, committee. There are two information items related to the liquor revolving fund on pages 148 and 149. Is there anything further to the liquor revolving fund, beyond what we discussed in the activity? No agreement is required for an information item, so I will return to page 127. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I neglected to ask about the NWT Child Benefit, so in the department total I'll just ask some questions about this.
So this is a new change that's coming forward again with the passage of a piece of legislation that is currently with committee at second reading in this House, and it will increase the benefits payable through the fund or, sorry, through the credit. How many families are going to benefit from the enhanced NWT child benefit? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Stewart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We estimate that it will be over 2,000 families that will be eligible to receive the NWT child benefit. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Mr. Testart.
Currently how many families receive the benefit?
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Stewart.
Sorry, Mr. Chair. Could I get the Member to repeat the question?
Thank you. Mr. Testart.
How many families are currently receiving the benefit under the current structure of the benefit? Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Stewart.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. The Minister will get back to the committee with the exact number, but my understanding it's approximately 800 to 1,000 is my memory of that. We will get the exact answer and get back to you on that one.
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. I appreciate that. Personally, the approximate numbers are fine at this point as we'll be doing more review of this.
So 1,000 more families are going to benefit from this. What is the average increase to the benefit that families can expect to enjoy once the changes are made? Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we don't have that detail of information handy. I will commit to the Member that we can put something in writing and provide it to all Members. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's satisfactory, but I will say this: this is a great idea, we've seen it be very successfully deployed on a national level, so I would encourage the Minister to both quantify how many more families this is going to benefit; the average costs that families will be able to gain monthly from this benefit or annually or whatever it shakes down to; and communicate that broadly with the public so they know exactly how much their government is giving back to them in the form of this NWT child benefit, and especially if you're doubling the amount of families who receive it. That's a very good thing. That’s just a comment, but I’m sure the Minister will be pleased to hear it’s not a criticism. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Would the Minister like to respond?
