Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since you recognized me, I will make the comment that there seems to be a lot more going in then there is coming out of this thing.
Debates of Feb. 4th, 1998
Topics
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 568
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. That was a comment. The Liquor Commission Revolving Fund and information item. Do we agree on this page?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Page 3-12, active positions, Liquor Commission Revolving Fund and information item, also. Do we agree on this page?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Going back to program summary of the finance, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance, $8.898 million. Agreed?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Total expenditures. Mr. Steen.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
We are on page 3-5 of the 1998-99 Main Estimates. Mr. Steen.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 4th, 1998
Page 568
Vince Steen Nunakput
Mr. Chairman, somehow I missed page 3-13. Could I ask the Members to return to revenue items, page 3-13?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. The honourable Member is requesting that we go back to 3-13. Do we agree?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Mr. Steen.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Vince Steen Nunakput
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, honourable colleagues, for the opportunity to return to this item. My question is related to the top item, the grant from Canada of $826.315 million. I would like to ask the Minister, or to remind the Minister that I requested information on this item, a breakdown of what exactly this is and what it represents by department. I believe I asked for this particular item when we were discussing the budget in general. As a matter of fact, it was the Budget Address. It showed there the amount of money that were expenses in graph form but I was wondering how this item could be explained so that I could understand exactly how much money is coming into this government from the feds for what specific purpose. I have not seen that information yet, Mr. Chairman.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Todd.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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John Todd Keewatin Central
I will answer two ways. Mr. Steen did ask me the other day while I was up with FMBS. That was two days ago. There is a significant amount of work to go into what he is asking. On this grant thing, I am going to ask Ms. Melhorn to explain it because I do not think we can break it down. It is a grant.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Ms. Melhorn.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Melhorn
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The money that we get from the federal government under the grant from Canada is what is referred to as an unconditional payment. That means the money comes to us to do with what the Government of the Northwest Territories deems their priority. There is no breakdown. There is no requirement under it that the Government of the Northwest Territories spend that money on any particular department or program. It is up to the Legislative Assembly of this government to determine how that money is spent. There have been, from time to time, program transfers that have gone into the Formula Financing Agreement and do result in an increase in the grant such as the transfer for health, forestry, airports and so on. With respect to the Formula Financing Agreement, once that funding has been rolled into the grant, again, it just becomes part of this unconditional payment and there is no requirement that the money be directed to any program or any department, that is up to the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Steen.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Vince Steen Nunakput
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There would be no way we could find out then exactly how much money was in the transfer agreement for say forestry or how much was for Arctic airport maintenance? There is no way we can find that out?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Minister.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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John Todd Keewatin Central
I made a commitment to my colleague that I would try to identify as much as I could where the transfer payments came over the years. Some of these transfer payments go way back, health, forestry, et cetera. As I get them my honourable colleague will receive the copies of
them. What Ms. Melhorn was saying is once the transfer takes place, let us take the last one for example, which was the Arctic A airports, I believe it was something like $24 million to our base, once it takes place, even though the agreement was specific to airports and it gets put into the grant, it then becomes an unconditional grant. That is what Ms. Melhorn was talking to. On the issue of the financial transfer arrangements that we made with different federal government departments, I am working on that right now. I am not sure how long it will take to get all the information that my honourable colleague has asked, but once I have it he will receive it. Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Steen.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Vince Steen Nunakput
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this includes money for aboriginal education?