Caroline Wawzonek
Deputy Premier
Statements in Debates
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't believe so, but if I might just confirm with the deputy minister to see if I've missed anything, please.
As I had said earlier, they may well be into the thousands, the number of forms. I am not going to be in a position myself, personally, to do this. The Integrity Commissioner, of course, monitors the activities of MLAs here within the House, but what I certainly can do is go back to the Department of Finance and speak to those in human resources and ensure that we are doing our best to communicate department by department and to individual regions in what it is to understand the nature of a conflict, what it is to understand the appearance of conflict, and ensure that those materials are...
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am, again, not entirely well-versed or well-placed necessarily to answer all of the details with respect to the Housing Corporation. Perhaps I could suggest if there is anything else within here that the deputy minister of Finance or secretary to the FMB might be in a position to provide some further detail, aside from getting to the Minister responsible. I will take it to the deputy minister for now, please.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is money that we were fortunate to receive from the Government of Canada. It wasn't entirely an item that was able to be funded from within the GNWT's own-source revenue streams. It was a COVID-specific program introduced by the Government of Canada. To be quite honest, yes, certainly, I would say that the information that we are gathering about who is applying and which sectors they are from, I would see no reason why that would simply disappear.
One other note I would make is that it has actually been difficult to spend all of it insofar as there are not that many...
Thank you, Madam Chair. The simple answer, Madam Chair, is no, and the Department of Finance, I know we also have an opportunity to meet with the Auditor General's office and discuss the accounting standards and how they impact debts. I have had that conversation now on a couple of occasions, and I'm not anticipating anything to have significant change here, no.
Thank you.
Again, this is something that comes out through each department, where any employee who wants to take on any kind of outside activity, employment, service, volunteer, anything of that sort, obviously needs to be outside of their regularly scheduled hours of duty, and they are expected to notify their deputy head in writing. Quite often, each department has their own form that they would fill out in order to examine and explore the nature of the activity. The point here is to avoid, certainly, conflicts of interest, but also the appearance of conflicts of interest. That would then be approved...
No, we have not, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am sure I do have those numbers. I just may not have them in front of me right now. Perhaps I will turn it over to the deputy minister. He may have those numbers at his fingertips.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to propose to have that question directed to the deputy minister, please.