Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And on my acknowledgements, I just want to correct the record. It's not hearts, we were playing bridge at the seniors -- I don't know why I thought that earlier.
Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Finance, and it's with respect to my Member's statement earlier today. And what's causing me concern is this entitlement to write the federal minister exclusively on their own decision including Cabinet's without it informing Members that they're asking for more money. So my question for the Minister of Finance is, is what is the reasonable threshold on taking on new generational debt that will warrant a conversation with Members prior to writing that letter? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, about two years ago we began a very extensive process of having the fiscal responsibility policy reviewed. That process was undertaken with the Members of the House during the 19th Assembly, and part of what we did at that time was to review and to include an expressed threshold in our own policy after which point we would then be obligated to go to Ottawa. By doing that, it put an obligation on us. It was an obligation that all parties in this House, and anyone really within government would know, that once we hit the threshold of being within $120 million of the borrowing limit, the Minister of Finance would then be obligated to write to Ottawa to seek a borrowing limit increase. We do keep this House informed through various presentations, both to Members confidentially, to caucus, so that when we are approaching that threshold, we are now triggered to go to Ottawa to write. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unilateral decision to ask for how much, that's the problem here. We have no idea what generational debt this Minister is now taking on and saddling this Assembly. So this is well beyond an operational decision, Mr. Speaker. How much debt has the Minister requested from the Minister of Finance of Canada? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker. At this point in time, we've simply put Ottawa on notice that we're going to need to have a conversation with them, that there's a lot more information that will have to go into that, a lot more planning, including, quite frankly, happy to have that conversation with Members of this House. It's not a unilateral decision. We are triggered by the fiscal responsibility policy. We've undertaken that effort to begin that conversation, but the process is not one that happens overnight. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, my questions aren't intended to be a trial by ordeal. My questions are intended to be like: be honest, how much are you asking for? So you sent a letter requesting we don't know how much we need, we don't know how much we want, but we want more? Please, we must be able to narrow it down a little bit because Northerners are the ones who are going to be saddled with this debt. Hence, Mr. Speaker, what range of debt has the Finance Minister requested that Northerners will now carry without a MLA discussion? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to say it again. At this point, the conversation has only just begun. So we've put Ottawa on notice that we're going to be coming to them in order to make this request, that there's more information coming. Our offices here in the Department of Finance and Fiscal Policy are looking at what kind of options we are going to be looking at, what kinds of needs we might have, what is on the capital plan for the next several years, what is in in the operational plan for the next several years. Mr. Speaker, if the Member doesn't believe me when I answered that the second time and doesn't believe me when I'm answering it now, I'm happy to share the letter with him.
Colleagues, please and thank you, address it to the chair.
Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you. That was a hint of Mr. Whitford style of managing the House, Mr. Speaker. Good for you. Mr. Speaker, what if Ottawa says no; what is plan B? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, we have certainly made efforts with fiscal responsibility here to try to make changes within our main estimates. Obviously, the main estimates come to the floor of this House, and we see how the changes to the main estimates go in the last government, and we were -- or when we last -- Assembly -- or last session, we were certainly asked to roll back some of the changes that we were proposing at that time. But it's a conversation for this House generally when the main estimates come forward, what else we can do to adjust them if that's the situation we find ourselves in. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
