Deputy Premier
Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Tax policy is also a fairly complicated area so I'm not necessarily going to brainstorm here but appreciate the interest in the space. And absolutely, I, you know, had the benefit, a consensus system of sitting, myself and the Premier, with Members of -- all Members of committee last week and it was a positive conversation about these kinds of ideas and issues and would certainly be happy to have that type of conversation continue. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there's a benefits officer being added in Inuvik and a benefits officer being added in Norman Wells. In addition to that, in the payroll office, there's a payroll clerk and payroll officer. That's four. And then with that in addition, one additional payroll supervisor on there and that, in part, is growth in terms of the number of staff and public servants that folks are monitoring.
And, Mr. Chair, before people ask me about whether the growth in public service is driving this, it's not purely or just singularly public service alone; there's also the contractors that...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the Assembly, the Assembly, of course, is managed by the board of management so I'll leave that to the operations of the board of management. With respect, more broadly, to the GNWT, Mr. Speaker, we certainly are -- of course that's why we introduced Restoring Balance as being an overarching strategy, fiscal strategy, for the government that would look for ways to reduce all expenditures and increase revenues.
Mr. Speaker, we did -- with respect to coming into the end of this fiscal year, we did ask the departments to consider carefully what kind of cash...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't have the detail in front of me. I'm not sure if the deputy minister or director can speak to that level of detail. I'll turn to the deputy minister first, please.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, Mr. Chair, there is, again, a very, very high volume of requests for medical travel support over the course of a year, and fortunately, most do not come to a political level. I do get a handful of BFs or inquiries from colleagues in this room through the course of the year. It's certainly -- but it is not -- it's not hundreds that I'm receiving. The vast thousands do go through a usual process and/or -- and even if there are problems -- and I'm not saying there's not problems that don't come to all of us, but that they are able to go through the usual processes. It's...
Mr. Chair, I believe the $11 million is for the total net revenue that we would have. I was just trying to pull the revenue numbers. I can confirm -- if I can, Mr. Chair, I will try to confirm quickly the portion that is only for consumer, but it would be less than that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The cost of living tax credit is a line item available to all Northwest Territories residents. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe I have seen charts setting out specifically what each community does get for the territorial power support program. I don't have it here. I don't think we're pulling it up quite quickly. I'm more than happy to provide that, Mr. Chair, so that folks do know exactly the difference between what they would pay versus what they are benefitting here. It is -- in fact, I think it's on the Northwest Territories Power Corporation website. And, again, I can certainly -- I'll make sure that we provide a link so that that information can be had. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there's not a full-time dedicated position per se but, Mr. Speaker, the interagency engagement between the Premier's office and the federal government, that is a large part of the core work that happens at executive and Indigenous affairs, certainly on the executive side, so if you're in that department, I'm quite confident in saying, and believe I'm well placed to say so with the information I do have, that this is not a concern to the department, that they're confident that they are able to actively engage, and I do happen to know from the role that I'm in, Mr. Speaker, having...
With respect to -- I did not have the opportunity to attend this briefing, Mr. Chair, so I don't know what may or may not have been said. But as far as reporting, Mr. Chair, maybe I'll turn that to the deputy minister to see if he can give that background, please.