Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you again, Madam Chair. I am here to present the Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures and Borrowing Authorization) No. 3, 2019-2020. The supplementary estimates document consists of two items, as follows:

$4.5 million for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs for increased grant-in-lieu of property tax payments to municipal taxation authorities under the Grants-in-Lieu of Property Taxes Policy. This increase is the result of increases to the assessment values for the City of Yellowknife. A significant portion of the increase is due to the new Stanton Territorial...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There have been no discussions of any kind of freeze at this time. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do think the question is clear. It is the percentage total that the Stanton Territorial Hospital is in the entirety of all grants-in-lieu paid by MACA to the City of Yellowknife. The Member is nodding his head, Madam Chair, so I am going to continue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do actually have a note that says "slow" right on my desk, but I do apologize to the translators.

Mr. Speaker, I can see the A New Day programming is predominantly focused currently here in Yellowknife. For what it is worth to the Member, one of the newest places where that program is being offered is at the North Slave Correctional facility, and it does therefore target individuals who come from across communities all across the Northwest Territories. That said, obviously, it is quite different from being offered within the communities themselves.

I can say also that...

Thank you, Madam Chair. No one would like to avoid that more than me right now. Things that are being put into place, Madam Chair, we would include simply, really, that is the entirety of the budgeting strategy and the fiscal policy strategy and ensuring that, when we create a budget, the budget needs to do a better job of being accurate in terms of the estimates going forward. We are in a totally new position, a new government, a new administration, as well, and we have the opportunity to really evaluate and question each department that comes forward and ensure that, when they bring an...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Two parts: firstly, that the assessors are certified. These are external to the GNWT, and they are certified assessors, so that comes with it their own ethical obligations, obviously, to ensure that the information they are providing is fair and accurate. In addition to that, the Department of Finance is alive to the Member's concerns. I can assure the Member that there will be a process going forward, internally, to determine whether or not or under what circumstances an appeal would be appropriate, perhaps more formally than what has been done at least in the recent...

Mr. Speaker, the total budget for this program is $292,000. The current expenditures forecasted for 2019 and 2020 are $240,000, so that is where it stands at present.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are two different challenges. The short-term borrowing is in the Department of Finance, and that is so that the Department of Finance can manage the total finances of the Government of the Northwest Territories and be able to look at the totality of what is being demanded and needed in order to run all of the essential government programs and services, including the health authority, including their payroll, and that is the short-term borrowing aspect of it.

The health of the health department's finances is a long-term challenge, but that is not one that is being...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Not entirely. I think it may depend on each municipality. In this particular instance, MACA and the municipalities do work together to have an assessor who comes in and does the assessments, so it is not accurate. I apologize if I said that it is not accurate to say it is done exactly the same as a private property would be made. The grants-in-lieu is part of a Government of Northwest Territories policy, and so MACA follows the policy in order to ensure that the grants-in-lieu are paid properly to the municipal governments, as is required by that policy.

Again, I appreciate the question in that ensuring that we engage the stakeholders, in particular the unions, Union of Norther Workers and the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association, is critical. Both of those organizations, as key stakeholders, were significantly involved two years ago, during the initial consultations, and it is critical that they be involved again before this matter can actually progress in any real way. Again, making sure that they are involved and that the relationship with those unions is renewed between the government and the unions is of critical importance to me...