Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I want to clarify, going back to the previous question first. If you're doing this flight from Simpson through to Edmonton there is no AFI, air improvement fee, but there will be a fee on that ticket for the aeronautical fees which would be in the $7 to $9 range. So that's actually going to be that one fee that will be affecting someone flying through from a community.
To the Member's question if would I support a phased-in approach, I've made it quite clear a number of times, no, we do not support a phased-in approach. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This one-tenth of 1 per cent cost of living increase would be .08 per cent, the department indicated it worked with Statistics Canada to derive that statistic. Can we get some more details on the calculation done on that or a commitment to see detailed -- granted that this is perhaps not the venue for that, but can we get some detailed calculations?
That wasn't shared with committee during our study, and it's a little troubling to find out on the floor that they have quantified the exact cost when cost of living has been such a concern of committee and of the public who presented to committee. So can the Minister provide further detail or commit to providing a thorough breakdown of those numbers? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can supply that information how we arrived to the multiplier effect on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I should note the household statistics seem to be lumped under one line "Transportation," is that correct or is there separate data being collected on air transportation? Did the department just multiply that transportation line and base its analysis on that or did it base its analysis on specific air costs? Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will pass that on to the deputy minister, Mr. Neudorf. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To clarify, it was the stats bureau in the Department of Finance that provided the information for us, and it was the average increased ticket price of $27 to $29 multiplied by the average number of times that a household would travel, which was three and a half times, on a southbound trip. So you can just take that number and work it up to the total household expenditures and you can come up with your percentage of .08.
So, in fact, it was three and a half southbound trips times $27 and divided by $124,105, which is the average Yellowknife household expenditures and it would come out to 0.08 per cent.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Testart, would you clarify for committee what document you are referring to?
Sorry, on the air increase? Oh, the statistics? The statistics bureau, sorry, Mr. Chair, the NWT -- I don't have the document in front of me, I'm sorry, Mr. Chair.
Okay. I'm sorry, you mentioned the line "Transportation." I assume that was from some sort of document that you were discussing. So continue your discussion.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and it's nothing that's before the House for consideration, it's merely how the Bureau of Statistics calculates household costs. I appreciate the comments from Mr. Neudorf.
Now, the witness has indicated that this was a breakdown of Yellowknife and I think that's prudent on one level, considering it is a cost increase to the Yellowknife Airport, but as honourable Members from smaller communities have mentioned this impacts them as well. So did the department do an analysis of the average transportation costs of someone living in Norman Wells, someone living in Inuvik, all the other communities that make frequent trips to our capital? Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We expect that this would be less for the outlying communities than 0.08 per cent. The other thing I want to mention, though, when we are talking about this 0.08 per cent of cost of living to residents of Yellowknife, this is only if you choose to fly. If you do not choose to fly, this does not impact you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn't so much ask for an assessment, but if the department had done that work. So did they do a cost assessment for each of our regional centres and the average household cost of travel and how it will be impacted by the increased fees of our gateway airport? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, as I said, we never did that analysis. AIF is lower for the outlying communities, and the price of tickets are higher. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
I remain unconvinced. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Next, Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I would like to just go back to the fees here for a minute. Is there any possibility, then, that these airport improvement fees are going to go down in the future? How would that be done? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is something that is possible once we get the airport up to where we think it should be. Maybe this is a fee that in a future government could be either lowered or discontinued. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. The revolving fund itself, how is that going to be reported on annually by the department? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Moving forward, the revolving fund will have a page in the main estimates. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. That is helpful to know. Presumably, then, it will also be in the business plans, but I guess I am thinking about how would the department show what the money was spent on in terms of capital improvements, and will there be any tracking of statistics to show how the money is improving services at the airport, things like wait time, line-up lengths, and delivery of baggage, those sorts of things? Is there going to be any attempt to track any of that and show how improvements have improved the performance of the airport, itself? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we move forward with this model, we do recognize the need for transparency and to have a good accounting for the public about how the revenues are being earned and how the expenditures are being tracked and how they are going to be spent, so, as the Minister indicated, there will be a page in the main estimates that provides information at a high level on the revolving fund. In addition to that, we would prepare an annual business plan that would outline the work that we want to undertake with the monies that are available to the airport. We would also prepare financial reports that would show how that money is spent at the end of the year.
In fact, air carriers are talking to us that they would like improved metrics, improved statistics for what is happening at the airport so that they can make their business decisions, so we would be, as part of the business plan, also providing all kinds of information around use, metrics around the Yellowknife Airport. That will be adjusted based on what the air carriers' information is that they would want to see. I would note, as well, that the airport economic advisory committee will have oversight over this, but we will also be setting up an air carrier consultative committee that would be providing input into the capital and how those fees are expended, and then also an airline operating committee, which would provide input to the operations of the airport for how the airport is operated and any improvement that we might want to make there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I'd like to suggest that it's not just air carriers that would be interested in that sort of metric information. It's probably actually the public and air travellers. So are those sorts of things going to be considered? The reason why I ask this is the economic advisory committee is just going to be a bunch of business folks, which is fine, but there is not necessarily any public representation on there. Air carriers may not even be represented. It's just going to be businesspeople. Is there going to be some effort to develop indicators of performance at the airport that might be of more interest to the travelling public? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We certainly do think that the people on the Airport Economic Advisory Committee are going to be representing the interests of the public. The information that we provide, the business plan, it's available on our website now, so all of that information is public, and anybody in the public will be able to take a look at it. Some of the things that the public would be interested in are just the wait times, baggage delivery times, and de-icing times with aircraft. Those kinds of things are the type of metrics the air carriers want. We think the public is going to be interested in those, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that response, but I guess I think the real way to find out what the public would like to know is actually get some public representation on the economic advisory committee itself. Let's turn to the committee. The Minister did provide us a terms of reference. Is that a public document at this point? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will pass that on to Deputy Minister Neudorf. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have not released the document publicly yet. We are waiting to get through this process. Assuming the bill is approved, then we will have that information released publicly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to go to the committee terms of reference, which are apparently still secret. Why is there no public representation from a variety of stakeholders for the Economic Advisory Committee? It says that it's -- well, I am not allowed to talk about it, I guess, but it seems to be business leaders. We do not know what kind of business they may be involved with, but why was this not crafted with a view to getting representation from key stakeholders like the travel industry, the travelling public, air carriers, the Northern Air Transportation Association, and so on, the City of Yellowknife, which has a big stake and interest in this, Aboriginal governments, local Aboriginal governments? Why was it not crafted more as a stakeholder-based committee rather than just businesspeople? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We fully intend to release the terms of reference for that committee publicly, so there is no issue with talking about it here, now. It was just because we were waiting for the bill to pass before we had released it. All of those groups that the Member had talked about, I think that they are all going to be represented in various measures on the committee.
We want to have people that have a strategic focus, a good business focus, and can provide strategic business-related advice to the airport to help us make good choices, good business-related choices to help grow the economy of the NWT. In order to do that, we will need representation from all those groups that the Member represented, and, in fact, there are individuals from Aboriginal governments, from the City of Yellowknife, from the business community, from tourism, that have all expressed interest in that committee. So I think we are optimistic that we are going to have some really good representation with some good advice from committee members as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
