Caroline Wawzonek

Slash Finance. It is a pickle, Mr. Speaker, thank you. So first of all, Mr. Speaker, the challenges that are being faced in the Northwest Territories Power Corporation that are certainly impacting the Department of Finance are not exclusively related to cost overages relating to different projects. There's a significant amount of impact from low water which is a situation entirely outside of my control or really that of anyone else in this House. We have been in a situation where the Snare plant has been burning a significant amount of diesel and in a situation where during -- because of the...

No, Mr. Chair.

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I happen to know that Housing NWT is actually putting together some information about their capital process and how they do their ranking and how they do their assessments because that then does feed into what we do at the financial management board and the Department of Finance and our processes. So, for example, when there's an increase on utilities costs, that's a forced growth matter that comes to the financial management board from Housing NWT, and it goes through the same forced growth process as everywhere else. And in that sense, they are in fact...

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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Housing NWT is a Crown corporation and so their process is obviously a bit different than that of a department or a line department within the government. As such, they will go out and determine what level of need they may have. They will do their own assessments. They do their own capital planning. That number does come forward then, ultimately, but it doesn't go through exactly the same processes. They are also then out looking always for other sources of revenue, including GNWT, but also federal government, as well as their own sourced revenue that come...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is regular reviews and regular eyes on both highways throughout the entire year. What I've asked for though, and very happy to commit to the Member that this information will flow to the Members from the region as well, is that we have outlined in advance what the regular maintenance process is, what are the regular times when there's someone that does go out and inspect, and what is the regular maintenance that's going to happen. So MLAs and Members and regional residents know themselves in advance what they can expect. Obviously, when there's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we could certainly go back and look at the fiscal responsibility policy again and reconsider if there's some element within that that we want to look at in terms of changes how and when we report on different elements. The last time we did the review, there were some elements that were rejected by the Members at the time through the conversations we were having. There may be a different appetite from this group of Members as to what kind of responsibility they want to see in terms of reporting or engagements. One of the things that we certainly changed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there were some delays and some particular challenges this year owing to the nature of the spring melt and just an unusual amount of snow that came in last year resulting in an unusual spring as that was melting. So that certainly posed challenges to the department and to our contractors. We also had two different contracts up in that region that were both out for renewal this year, and so that had to go through the usual public procurement processes. There was some delays therein. Every time, though, Mr. Speaker, we were reaching out to existing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Finance does continuous monitoring of the fiscal health of the Government of the Northwest Territories and we do periodic updates to myself, to Cabinet, and to all Members of the House. As part of our capital budget and part of the changes we've made previously, one of those was to do a fiscal update here. And it was in preparations for that that we have identified that, indeed, we would be in a position that we would have to go to Ottawa because we'd be within that $120 million target. That is what led to the letter being sent. Thank you.