Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. The motion is in order. To the motion?
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.
Carried
Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Finance amend the Financial Administration Act, section 35, to move the required release date of the public accounts by three months, from December 31st to September 30th. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Johnson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. A number of jurisdictions publish their public accounts before us, as noted in the committee report. I just want to comment that although I do think this should be changed in the legislation, it will take some years to get there. You have to work with the Office of the Auditor General, all of the departments, to make sure we can move our public accounts back. There are some departments, the power corp, the health authority who are notoriously late in getting their financial statements in. There is also a number of subsidiaries we own, you know, things like McPherson Tent and Canvas which then get their own individual audit and then get rolled up. So there's kind of this process that needs to occur before the public accounts that every single entity everywhere gets its audit complete and its financials done. So there is a big chain of information that flows up. But we think with a coordinated effort, we can stop seeing people be late in their accounting and eventually move this up to three months. So I encourage the department to amend the act and then probably give a little timeline for implementation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.
Carried
Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Finance take steps to publish inyear fiscal reports on a quarterly basis within a month and provide a timeline for implementation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.
Carried
Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Finance take steps to digitize the public accounts and provide a timeline for implementation and anticipated costs;
And further, the digitized presentation of financial results should align with the administrative, economic, functional, and program classifications used in the budget and main estimates documents. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.
Carried
Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this report within 120 days. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.
Carried
All right, thank you, committee. Do you agree that you have concluded consideration of Committee Report 3619(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 20202021 Public Accounts?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We have concluded consideration of Committee Report 3619(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 20202021 Public Accounts. Mahsi.
We will now consider Tabled Document 74719(2), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023. Does the Minister of Finance have any opening remarks?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if I could just confirm first, so we're doing infrastructure expenditures. I have it as 74719(2)?
Okay, we're on the right one. Okay, good.
So, Mr. Chair, with respect to the Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), I am happy to present these here to the House. These estimates propose a total decrease of $59.8 million comprised of the following:
First, a net decrease of $108.9 million to adjust infrastructure project cash flows to realign the appropriations with the anticipated project schedules. These amounts are fully offset by appropriations in prior or future fiscal years.
Second, $48.1 million to provide funding for community government infrastructure projects under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Plan and Small Community Fund. Both these are fully offset by revenues from the federal government; and,
Finally, $1 million in support of the advancement of eligible projects under the COVID19 resilience stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program supporting public building ventilation improvements to reduce the transmission of airborne illnesses. These projects are fully offset by revenues from the federal government.
That concludes opening remarks, Mr. Chair. I am happy to answer questions the committee may have.
Mahsi, Minister. Does the Minister of Finance wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Yes, please, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber. Would the Minister please introduce her witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on my right I have deputy minister of finance Bill MacKay, and on my left the assistant deputy minister Terence Courtoreille.
All right. I've been asked to take a brief recess for a moment.
SHORT RECESS
I will now open the floor for general comments from the Members. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So I think the Minister mentioned in her opening remarks that there's a cash flowing forward of a number of infrastructure projects, and I'm furiously trying to get the actual document in front of me, but can the Minister explain why it was necessary to cash flow this money forward? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there's I mean, there's different reasons that would attach to different individual projects, but fundamentally what we've asked departments to do was to look at the state or the progress of an individual project and determine whether or not the project would being proceeding in this specific fiscal year, and if not, that's when you would make an adjustment. And rather than waiting until the end of the fiscal year and having it all come forward next spring, this by doing it now just, you know, again allows better reporting back to the House and a better plan hopefully for the next for the coming spring year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. O'Reilly.
Okay, thanks, Mr. Chair. So does this have anything, then, to do with our overbudgeting for capital that's happened over a number of years where, you know, we've been carrying forward 50 percent of the capital funds from year to year because with we just can't get the money out the door; there's not enough people to do the work, whatever? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, I wouldn't necessarily characterize it entirely as that. Again, there's there is a new approach that we are using for the coming fiscal year, and that approach is meant to look you know, to bring a bit of that planning more strictly in at the front end. But there's going to still be occasions where projects don't advance for a variety of valid and reasonable reasons. But, you know so, again, I wouldn't necessarily characterize it all as that. But this review does give an opportunity to, at this point, again, bring it forward now rather than waiting until the spring. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Mr. O'Reilly.
Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. So I think now that I've got this up in front of me, I can see where some of these money so there's a lot of money being carried forward for some rather large megaprojects, things like the Fort Providence transmission line, the Whati transmission line. What does this do to the scheduling of these projects? And, you know, say the maybe the greenhouse gas reductions that these projects were supposed to deliver as part of the energy strategy, how does this affect the scheduling of all of this stuff? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I'm going to start I want to say I'll start at the back end of the questions first. With respect to any greenhouse gas reductions that are perhaps, you know, our hope to flow from projects, obviously it is, you know, an unknown at this point what would necessarily be the actual final changes to greenhouse gas emissions and there could be other factors at play in that regard such as, you know, weather or other reductions that might be taking place for other reasons associated. Now that said, as to the timing, it's just to be to be certain, these projects where there's money moving into the next fiscal it's because they did not advance in 20222023 and the money is moving generally moving forward into 20232024 so that the project is reflective of when it is likely to advance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. O'Reilly.
Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. So is it the federal government's fine with us just pushing forward all of this money into future years and not delivering them by the dates that were promised? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Minister.
