Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Finance on the recent review that seems to have been carried out around the fiscal responsibility policy. So can the Minister outline how this review was carried out and who was consulted? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fiscal policy review was something that is an internal policy looking at a way of evaluating what we do as a government and how we manage our budgets, how we design our budgets. It was completed by the fiscal policy division as the primary lead within the Department of Finance but also with input from some of the other departments that look at this type of work and that do this type of work, such as the comptroller general's office, the management board secretariat. We certainly did look at counterparts across other governments to see what they might do when their departments of finance are managing and developing their own internal budgets, and it certainly was very helpful to take that opportunity and have a fairly detailed engagement with standing committee. And as mentioned earlier, it was a very thorough response that was received back.
I'd also note we did check in with the two credit rating agencies that would look at how we are doing to manage our budgets, and that's how this was developed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. It never fails to amaze me sometimes the things I can learn in oral questions, that the credit rating agencies were consulted but okay, that's all good.
In my statement, I noted that the fiscal responsibility policy has failed to keep our debt from growing at greater than inflation, that there are no consequences for noncompliance. Can the Minister tell us what changes will be made to the fiscal responsibility policy? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fiscal responsibility policy is really only one tool among many, not the least of which is the process that we are currently engaged in here, of examining our budgets publicly as part of this Assembly. Mr. Speaker, I would note that our current rate of budget growth is the smallest that it's been in a very long time, possibly in over a decade. So certainly there are things that are working within the Department of Finance right now to manage that debt growth. But notwithstanding that, the review was done to try to make it even better. There's a number of changes, Mr. Speaker, not the least of which, something that comes up frequently, we're proposing a cushion of $120 million under the federal borrowing limit so that there's not going to be this constant question of when are we going to hit the limit. We know there's going to be that cushion there so that that gives us the room every year to ensure that if there's something like a flood that there's always the room available to us.
Another one I want to highlight, Mr. Speaker, is with respect to publishing two things: An ongoing moving average to show where we are in terms of where we are in fiscal responsibility policy, what kind of surplus we need depending on what's happening on the capital side. And with that, Mr. Speaker, in the fall, when we do the capital plans, that's when we'll actually be putting out an anticipated amount that's required for the fiscal responsibility policy and for the operating surplus to meet the capital plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Of course, as a Regular MLA, I was asking for that kind of information in the last Assembly, but glad that we're going to finally get this. So another concern, though, that I've outlined is the growth in P3 debt servicing that eats into our ability to pay for programs and services. This is a growing problem as this government takes on more and more P3 projects with little to no analysis or disclosure of the impact this has had on our operating budget.
So can the Minister tell us whether there will be greater analysis and disclosure of P3 servicing costs and impacts on programs and services as part of a revised fiscal responsibility policy? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the P3 policy is separate; it wasn't part of the review that was done in looking at the fiscal responsibility policy so that it simply wasn't part of it. It's a different policy all together.
Mr. Speaker, at this point in time there's not any active work happening with respect to a P3. So this is not something that is you know, there's not an active concern around growing numbers of P3 projects. What we do have are the some projects that are ongoing that where there are operational expenses now because rather than investing huge amounts of sums at the capital side to build a project through a traditional process, instead, that the budgeting for these projects, such as Stanton, such as the Mackenzie Valley fibre line, they were extended over the life of the asset; they were made into operation costs over the course of existing projects. At the end of the day, though, Mr. Speaker, all that money is GNWT money, whether it's on the capital budget, whether it's on the operations budget. So those P3 projects that are still on the books are there on a different side than what they would have been otherwise. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Of course I'm not talking about the P3 policy; I'm talking about the fiscal responsibility policy where debt servicing should come into play, whether it's P3 debt as well, and it should include that. And although the Minister doesn't think there's active concern, I've been raising this in the House for seven years. So I'm very concerned that the Minister and the department appear to be ready to make changes to this policy without bothering to engage the public, and the Minister herself spoke about how they engaged the credit rating agencies but are you know, are we actually going to talk to the public? So we hold all kinds of public engagements for such mundane things as renaming the Stanton Legacy building or a survey on liquor and cannabis products. But can the Minister tell us whether there will be any public engagement on the review of the fiscal responsibility policy, and if not, why? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had the pleasure of overseeing a number of different policies that have been reviewed and revised in the life of this Assembly. And I've actually had the opportunity to go back and say, you know, when do we go out and engage public and when do we take different types of approaches? And, Mr. Speaker, it depends upon the impact of the policy on members of the public. The greater the impact, the greater the anticipated interests, such as in the naming of a building which may well involve wanting to name it after an individual or after a particular location. Those occasions certainly do see a wider and more concerted effort to do engagement. The affirmative action policy would be one that I am currently involved in right now where there is extensive public inperson engagements taking place. The fiscal responsibility policy, on the other hand, Mr. Speaker, it really is something that looks at government trying to ensure its own processes and its own budgeting is done in a responsible fashion.
As far as input on to budgets, Mr. Speaker, there are the budget dialogues that I've done every year; there is the process of the Committee of the Whole; there is the process of business plans. All of those are opportunities where members of the public, advocacy organizations, municipal governments, send in their comments on the budget, what we should spend on, how we should spend it. The budgeting dialogues process, again how we should budget, where we should manage, where the balances should be. So all of those processes continue to exist. But the fiscal responsibility policy in terms of how to structure the fiscal strategy, that's an internal looking process and that's why we've kept it to being more narrow focus. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Order. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
