This is page numbers 1255 - 1298 of the Hansard for the 14th Assembly, 6th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairman.

Topics

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Lafferty.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

October 7th, 2003

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Leon Lafferty North Slave

Thank you. So we don't have all the information, but we know we need $1.8 million. How does that work? You don't know what you're getting for revenues, but you know how much you're going to need to off-set the cost for the supplementary. That's amazing. You said, may be included. It puzzles me. Is it included or is it not included? Maybe doesn't assure me that it is in there.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 1286

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Handley.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Joe Handley

Joe Handley Weledeh

Mr. Chairman, if I said maybe it's included I didn't mean that. We have netted off $2.66 million. Now, we don't know exactly what that number will be. It may be exactly $2.66 million when we get the final bills in or it may be slightly less or more. At this point, our best estimate is $2.66 million is what we would have taken in from our workers working in other jurisdictions through the MARS agreement.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 1286

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

General comments. Mr. Roland.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, just a few comments in this area and it's unfortunate that we're actually dealing with this bill in the sense that we just heard earlier that the room, and I guess it was qualified, that there is maybe $1.5 million worth of room left back in our supplementary reserve and we're six months into the year. That's a concern for me. I guess the other one is, is that amount included with the liabilities we take on by some of the transactions we do? Because some of the transactions are cash in/cash out or just an accounting of an amount or liability. Is that amount a reflection of the liabilities placed on this government as well? Thank you.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 1286

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Handley.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Joe Handley

Joe Handley Weledeh

Mr. Chairman, I'm not clear what the Member means when he talks about liabilities of this government. We have built into our fiscal forecast an additional $5 million to carry us over for the next six months. In that sense it's already built into our fiscal framework. If that's what the Member's referring to as liabilities, then yes, we still have some room there. Thank you.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 1286

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Roland.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Not necessarily liabilities such as environmental or cash liabilities, but from my understanding of what we're presented with is that the total amount of this, including non-cash in or cash out transactions, would be over $1 million over the supplementary reserve. If we included the total amount of transactions. Whether it was actually cash transferred from one department to another. Is that the case?

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Voytilla.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Voytilla

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As we said, on a cash basis there's $1.5 million left in the supplementary reserve, but in our fiscal forecast we've recognized that that will not be adequate to see us through to the end of the year, so we've estimated in the current forecast for this year that the supplementary requirements from now to the end of the year will be $5 million. So, not $1.5, but $5 million. We trust that will be enough to see us through. That $5 million reserve remaining for the year is built into the $77 million deficit forecast for 2003-2004.

If you factor in the non-cash transactions, which are accounting entries to record the transfer of some assets, then the supplementary reserve on a non-cash basis would be actually $1.5 million over spent today. But we don't have to come up with the cash to meet those non-cash obligations. They're accounting entries, so we don't normally take them into account when we figure out much flexibility we've got in our supplementary reserve.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 1286

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Roland.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can continue to be educated, I guess, in the process of accounting and the numbers and so on. Aside from that, Mr. Chairman, there are a lot of entries in here that talk about, as we heard one of the Members raise, the information technology area and software and devolution. A few things like that. We've just six months ago passed a budget, main estimates developed on business plans were reviewed by Members and we went through IT scenarios with departments. Already, I guess, the fact that it's coming forward in a supplementary means that they're over-expended in those areas already or did they miscalculate something or is it absolutely necessary that a lot of these come forward or is it something that can sit and wait until there's actually cash available? Thank you.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Handley.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Joe Handley

Joe Handley Weledeh

Mr. Chairman, a lot of the IT money that we're spending is to a large extent fine tuning our requirements in that area. The biggest expenditure, by far, is in the health care field and that is taking advantage of funding that has been made available to us from the federal government. In that case, we are enhancing or updating equipment. The others are fairly small and it's more fine tuning our IT. Thank you.

Detail

Legislative Assembly

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 1287

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

General comments. Detail. We're dealing with Bill 32, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004, page 5, Legislative Assembly, operations expense, Office of the Clerk, not previously authorized, $243,000.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Total department, not previously authorized, $243,000.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Department Of Executive

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Executive, operations expenditures, Financial Management Board Secretariat, Directorate, not previously authorized, $1.71 million. Mr. Dent.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Charles Dent

Charles Dent Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps we could get a bit of an explanation for why the Housing Corporation would be purchasing residential property to rent out on a non-subsidized basis. I don't recall this being a situation that I've heard of happening before.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Handley.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Joe Handley

Joe Handley Weledeh

Mr. Chairman, in late June Cabinet made a decision to transfer responsibility for the remaining staff housing units to the Housing Corporation in order to consolidate our housing mandate into the one agency. The amount of money here, $1.71 million, is not cash, but rather a grant in kind. Sorry, $2.1 million. It is a grant in kind. It isn't cash, it's for the value of those housing units that are transferred to the Housing Corporation. Thank you.

Bill 32: Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 1287

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Dent.