Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The cost of money costs money. What I mean by that is that whenever we have to finance a dollar, it costs the GNWT a lot of money.
Back in Committee of the Whole last session we were doing an extensive review of some of the expenses and supplementary estimates. We came across what I thought was a fairly alarming finding, and that was the money owed to this government from one of our sister territories, the Nunavut government. Upon requesting a review, later on we did get some information from the Minister and my question would be for the Minister of Finance. Because of costs, as I said, money does cost us money. Can the Minister indicate, in terms of a rolling average and maybe breaking it down, how much money was owed to this government from the Nunavut government back in June of this calendar year?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we last discussed this issue there was about $2.93 million that was owing to us. That number has been now whittled down to $2.39 million.
That is quite an alarming number. Anybody who has a mortgage, who owes money, knows that $2.9 million being financed does have a cost to it. That cost is borne by you and I. It’s borne by the taxpayers. At the end of the day, it affects programs and dollars we don’t have. We don’t have the ability to finance large sums of money like that at any given time. More alarming than that number is the fact that there’s a substantial amount of money that is debt owed to us from a long period of time. Can the Minister indicate, out of that number, how much is owed to us that is over six months old?
The information that I have is that currently there’s only $2,000 owing that’s over 90 days.
This is a substantial improvement from the last time we asked this question. I’ll ask my third question: What was the amount owed to us back in June of this calendar year when this was brought up in the House?
The number provided to the Member in June was $2.93 million. The number I just gave to him now has been whittled down to $2.39 million.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I should reiterate my question a bit better here, I guess. That was the amount in June that was owed to us that was over six months old; not the total amount but what was six months or older in June of this calendar year. When this issue is brought forward in terms of high debts of finance cost to this government.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. No question but I’ll give it. Moving on. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
