Thank you. So those intermediates, those agents would the example I used earlier, the GNWT flows money to an Indigenous government, the Indigenous government then uses that money to send their members to treatment. So it's not the GNWT directly sending somebody to treatment, it is another body, and that is what that is intended to cover. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Okay, maybe this is just semantics then. So GNWT has to initiate giving money to Indigenous governments on their own before we're going to seek reimbursement. What about in cases where Indigenous governments incur some costs and then seek and maybe even get reimbursement from GNWT for opioidrelated damages, would those sort of costs could they be rolled up in this as part of the claim? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. So if the GNWT pays the costs, then it's my understanding that those costs could be recoverable. But I don't believe and, again, this is not my area. But it's not my understanding that the reimbursements like the Member is talking about are commonplace. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, okay. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of this in my one minute that's left now. And I haven't got an answer about what the current practice is, or the practice will be moving forward. And is any of this going to be communicated in any way to the Indigenous governments that their costs related to opioid damages, if they seek and maybe even get reimbursement from GNWT, they would be included in the claim and that there might even be the potential, at some point, for sharing some of the claim money. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. At this point there is no such plans that I'm aware of. Thank you.
Thank you. Did you have any final okay, Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks, recognizing I have 13 seconds left. Yeah, this is obviously an issue. At least one Indigenous government has raised this issue and I am going to suggest to the Minister, and maybe the Minister of Health and Social Services, that you need to have this discussion at the Council of Leaders' level to get their views about this. If we're going to do things, we are going to do things with Indigenous governments, you have an obligation to talk to them about this. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any further questions? Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to ask a couple of questions because I mean, each one of us in the room has been touched by addiction in our lives, whether it be someone close to you, someone in the family, and it's always someone you love. And for clarity, we're putting I just want to make sure that, you know, there's situations where things happen and people have to go back to we're putting a lot of onus on Indigenous governments for their I'd rather I just wonder how that's going to work because I'm just wondering, you know, where's the anonymity that is going to is supposed to be for the person that goes to treatment? There's a lot of times, you know, you're supposed to try and keep everything private and confidential and if we're going to have to go to an Indigenous government to get approval, if you're Indigenous, to send someone to treatment, I don't know how that's going to work. I just have a little bit of a problem with that because, you know, I have experienced this most of my life and I want to be very honest about that. It's a very thing it's a situation where it's very close to your heart and many times people don't understand the whole situation. And the whole situation is not it can't be government it can't be done in this way. There has to be there has to be better ways of doing it. And I'm just wondering I support the bill. I think it's a good idea that we get the funds that are that we've spent to clarify this but it's the it's what you're suggesting afterwards as a group that I have some problems with because I never really paid attention to this and because I'm not into a lot of social issues. I don't you know, I'm very much a my knowledge is in a different place. And sometimes, you know, I just I don't know, I just I have a lot of questions, and I just wonder how people are going to be able to get to treatment quicker. That's my number one issue right now. By giving it to an Indigenous government, does that mean it's going to be quicker or the whole town's going to know? You know, and most of our people are of Indigenous descent and many times they don't want that to happen. And so I don't know. I just want some of these questions answered. And I know that we'll have a hopefully because I can't support something that I know is not is not correct because I dealt with this in my family for most of my life and it's it's a very hurtful situation. And with that, I just that's it. I just wanted to make a comment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Are there any further general comments on Bill 72? Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I know that in many of the small communities, lately we've been seeing a lot of young people, you know, fatalities involving young peoples with you know, in the fatalities where it all involves alcohol, drugs, you know, the addiction issues. We have a lot of issues in small communities. And even in Yellowknife, we have issues with addiction. Living in Yellowknife compared from the 70s, 80s, 90s, it's not the same no more. It's not safe to walk downtown Yellowknife because there's all kind of other people, you know, on the street. And especially and the people that we see there are all Indigenous. And in our communities, in many of the small communities, it's all they're all Indigenous, just like what my colleague said, you know. And we do have lot of addiction issues. We have a lot of mental health issues in small communities. And we know where that problem came from and how we got there. And like I've said in the past before, that these were not an issue before. So I just wanted to ask the Minister or, you know, it's more of a comment too. If he wants to answer, that's great, that's okay with him. But what I would like to see if this money, you know when we get this money, what I would like to see is that for the money to be shared with the Indigenous government. Will the Minister will they you know, like can we get any commitment or anything like that to see, or what their thoughts is on this because like I said, the addiction is not going to go away any time soon unless we do something about it. And we all know someone in our communities, we know someone in our families. And we had we even have some young people that are, you know, driving under the influence of, you know well alcohol, but a lot of them are driving under the influence of drugs too as well. We know that. I know that they are legal, marijuana is legal but we know that there's a lot of them are doing that, driving under the influence. So I know we need to do more. And especially with drinking and driving. And there was there is a court case. It was yesterday. So, you know, like I mean it's not just individuals. There's the whole family. Everybody is, you know, not just the whole family, but there's friends, the community are affected by the whole process. And you guys seen or heard about what happened in my region, one in another small community that just recently happened and another that happened in May and another one that happened in 2021. The court case, you know, just finished yesterday. So I just wish that this government would do more to help our people. And with this, with this opioid with this money, I would like the government to share this with the Indigenous governments so they can deal with their problems, with the issues that's affecting them in the small communities, in the regions. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Justice.
Thank you. So I cannot commit to spending money that won't come to the Government of the Northwest Territories any time soon. I expect this to be years away if we get any type of money. And who knows what the landscape will look like by then. Perhaps Indigenous governments will be delivering health services themselves so it might be a different discussion. But the idea of this legislation is to allow us to participate in a class action lawsuit open to federal, territorial, and provincial governments. I don't think there's anything stopping Indigenous governments from starting filing their own class action lawsuit. You know, municipalities probably want to be included in this conversation too. They have a lot of expenses related to, you know, the first responders that they hire. So the costs go well beyond health care costs. I think we all know that the cost of opioid addiction in particular, because that's what this is about, go well beyond what the Government of the Northwest Territories incurs. And so we could sit here all day and have a wide range of conversations, but that is beyond the scope of this bill here. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Are there any further Member for Monfwi, did you oh, you have
Well, if we had the resources, I'm sure the Indigenous government would do you know, will do their own class actions. But in many of the small communities, we don't have the resources. And even the Auditor General in the 2016 report said that a lot of community governments are underfunded. So we don't have resources. So that's why we're I'm saying that if this goes through, if the money, you know if they get the money, then I would like to see that money being shared with the Indigenous government. So he can help us not just keep it in Yellowknife or with the GNWT. You know, and I know that there are others I would like to for the Cabinet to share what they're saying there. I know they're yapping over there and they're saying things, but I would like you know, it would be nice if that Cabinet would listen to us and work with us and work with the Indigenous government. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. What was going on over in Cabinet was just something other than this topic and so it wasn't had to do with this conversation, so. If there's any other further questions, your time has expired for this Member and I'm going to move on to Member for Kam Lake.
Yeah, thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, just listening to the questions and comments that are happening today and I mean, the Member for Frame Lake just spent ten minutes kind of, I believe, getting to this question. And so I am wondering if we can just kind of get on the record whether or not the Minister will commit to working with the GNWT to establish a mechanism for Indigenous governments to track and recruit and report approved opioid damage costs and expenses as defined under "health care benefits" in Bill 72? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. Not at this time. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
That was my only question. Thank you.
Thank you. Is there any further questions from any Members that haven't spoken to Bill 72? Seeing none, is committee agreed that there are no further general comments?
Agreed.
Can we proceed to a clause by clause review of the bill?
Agreed.
Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 1 of the bill.
Clauses 1 to 5, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Clauses 6 to 10, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Clauses 11 to 13, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause schedule, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, to the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 72, Opioid Damages and Health Care Cost Recovery Act, is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 72, Opioid Damages and Health Care Cost Recovery?
Agreed.
Thank you, Minister, and thank you to the witnesses. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.
Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 94019(2), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024.
Members, we have concluded all departments prior to deferring the tabled document. Do Members have any comments? Seeing none, Minister, did you have any comments?
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I was hoping to do some brief closing remarks, largely for the sake of ensuring that the purposes here are clear to the members of the public, so if I may, with that, Madam Chair, we are indeed seeking some supplementary funding for infrastructure expenditures in the amount of $124.5 million. This will bring total proposed expenditures for 20232024 to $462.146 million. As I outlined in Committee of the Whole yesterday, the additional numbers are mainly comprising capital carryovers.
Madam Chair, the GNWT does intentionally budget an amount above what we are expecting to spend for the simple reality that across hundreds of millions of dollars and multiple communities in a large jurisdiction, this ensures that when something may be delayed or it needs changing that, given the large infrastructure deficit that we have, we don't allow any of our capacity to go unused. But, Madam Chair, I did want to make clear, as I don't know that I was honestly quite clear yesterday, that in 20222023, the GNWT spent $285.8 million on capital projects in the territory and that this is indeed above the average of $226 million of the last ten years. If we take into consideration incremental costs and increases as a result of inflation, which I know was asked yesterday, the GNWT has spent almost $50 million more than the average fiscal year. However, Madam Chair, not all of the budgeted amount for capital expenditures in 20222023 was expended. And, again, I want to be clear about this given the questions that arose yesterday. Accordingly, departments are proposing here the capital carryover of $129.7 million in order to continue some of the work that was begun now into the 20232024 fiscal year.
We do continue to drive a decrease in the annual amounts that are carried over. And in last year's carryovers were, I acknowledge, almost at 40 percent of the capital budget. But, Madam Chair, again, a number that I ought to have perhaps clarified yesterday but I'm happy to do so now, this year the GNWT is proposing to carry over only approximately 24 percent of its annual budget.
Madam Chair, as I noted previously, changes to public sector reporting standards do require the GNWT to report some third-party funding as revenues for the related expenditures in order to be appropriated now and voted on by Members of the Assembly. This is a new change, so I wanted to clarify that.
Of the total $462.146 million capital budget that we now have, $95.3 million of that is in fact related to federallyfunded projects administered by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs that previously had been reported as work on behalf of others and therefore not appropriated. But that has now changed. Without the change in reporting, the GNWT's total 20232024 plan would be approximately $366 million. So that would have been a figure much more aligned with the realistic responsible capital plan that we are now trying to put forward. I.
Also do want to note, Madam Chair, most of the $129.7 million as carry over is required to provide funding for the continuation of infrastructure projects which were not complete in the 20222023 year. But, again, almost $35 million of that, in those capital carryovers, is itself a result of the change in accounting treatment.
Madam Chair, I also wanted to take an opportunity, there was questions about what some of the different projects were, and so I wanted to address that here in the House and bring attention to some of the major projects that were indeed completed or that had substantial work completed in the last fiscal year. And those include:
The completion of the Ecole Itlo here in Yellowknife;
Continued work on the runway extension in Inuvik;
Inuvik airport resurfacing adaptation work;
The completion of the Fort Smith airport surfacing overlay;
A completion of the Fort Smith airport electrical;
Work on the Stanton Legacy facility which will be opening this year; and,
Work on the Hay River Fish Plant which will also be opening now this year.
Further to this, there's a few multiyear projects that are now underway for 20232024 as a result of this supplementary estimate, or which we would hope will be underway as a result of the supplementary estimate; namely, including:
The wellness and recovery centre
The territorial fire centre, and
Electronic client health record charting.
Madam Chair, the right sizing efforts were also subject of discussion and so I wanted to clarify that we are, indeed, committed to the right sizing efforts. I believe they are starting to bear fruit and that efforts in the capital budget in working with communities in this regard is happening. Right sizing is reducing the growth in debt. Madam Chair, Budget 20222023 had projected debt growth of around 6 percent and that the GNWT would, in fact, reach our mandated borrowing limit by 20252026. But with the reductions to the approach in capital planning, Budget 20232024 reduced our projected debt growth to 1 percent and forecasts a more comfortable cushion of $300 million, approximately, from underneath the borrowing limit over the next five years.
This is going to continue into the future, Madam Chair, with an overall smaller capital plan. I think I did mention this yesterday. When we go into the construction season, we then see less carryovers into future years when we start out from a smaller spot.
That said, as I acknowledged yesterday, we are absorbing impacts from what was an ever-growing capital plan, something that began prior to this Assembly, or to anyone in this House. That does mean that there are some carryovers from those years of large growth and from the increased overall capital plans in those years and that was still the case with the items that are before committee here.
That said, Madam Chair, I do appreciate the support of committee through the supplementary appropriation process to get some of those key projects moving, concluded, and indeed to now get some of them started including the fire centre, the InuvikTuktoyaktuk Highway, and initiatives such as the fish plant also completed. Thank you, Madam Chair. That concludes my remarks.
Thank you, Minister. If there are no further comments, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Madame la Presidente. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 94019(2), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20232024, be now concluded, and that Tabled Document 94019(2) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration.
(audio) it was caught on the end. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Would you like me to repeat the whole thing? I'm sorry, I couldn't get the computer screen to scroll up at the right time.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion?
Question.
