Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7. Thank you.

The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to item 7, oral questions. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I can say it's not Canadian Tire money.

---Laughter

We received the message and we were notified that in fact a company that had filed a tax return in the Northwest Territories was writing some prior years' losses against that filing and our portion of that filing that reimbursement, I guess, to the company is $36 million. We were working with the federal government trying to ensure that on the other side of the scale there is an increase to the transfer side as our corporate tax or own-source revenues, as we call them, also impact on transfers.

There is a bit of a problem with that, because the new way that funding is flowing from Ottawa is on a straight level that has been agreed to until the Expert Panel on Equalization and Territorial Formula Financing does its work. At that point we will know how own-source revenues impact us, but we are continuing to work with Finance Canada to ensure that we are not at a net loss here initially. That is a loss and that is why in our fiscal position we have had to account for that liability and we know that the money will be taken out of the corporate tax payments that we would receive from the federal government.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Okay, thanks. I think we will need an engineer, scientist at least, to help us connect all the dots. The explanation shows one of the frustrations that we deal with here, which is the complexity of our relationship with Ottawa, Mr. Speaker, I guess to the point of how does this impact or is this going to impact this year or in the near term, Mr. Speaker. Is this $36 million clawback going to impact our ability to continue our program spending or capital investment? Are we going to get hit on that side of our programs? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the impact we feel the most would be on the surplus we had accounted for during the budget process. This budget year and the upcoming budget years, there is going to be a small impact. We will not be reducing the current expenditures that we have voted for and put in the budget, so there will not be a reduction scenario coming as a result of this information. Again, there are a number of other avenues that we are working on with the federal government which could impact us in a positive way that might offset this, but that's still up in the air as to what that might be. But for the immediate fiscal year we are in, there will be no negative impacts in the sense of reductions or curtailing our capital spending. We are going to continue with the plan we have put before us. We don't have right now a plan to change what would be in the upcoming process for next year. Again, there are a fair bit of avenues or issues that we are dealing with with the federal government that could impact the next year. As for this year, there will be no changes to our current fiscal strategy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise with further questions for our friends on the other side of this Assembly. The Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation is smiling because he knows I can't ask him any more questions today because the last one was taken as notice.

I have questions for the Deputy Premier of this Assembly, Mr. Floyd Roland, with regard to the TTC that's being taken out of Yellowknife. The Minister of Health and Social Services had mentioned that there was a facility in Fort Smith. So from the sounds of this, there will be two in the South Slave. Maybe if the Deputy Premier could help explain the scenario. Is this going to be a bit of a political shell game? Is this why we are moving this from Yellowknife down to Hay River? Is it built on an economizing measure where we are enhancing a program, or is it due to money? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Minister of Health and Social Services has answered on a number of occasions in the House, he is preparing information to share with Social Programs and Members of this Assembly. It wasn't a political shell game. The facilities that are being referred to are contract facilities that are run by Bosco Homes at this point. That is why

there is reference to that facility, but information is being put together to be shared with Members of this House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe the Deputy Premier could help emphasize some clarity. This sounds like a done deal and I hate to say it, but the Minister of Health has been in charge of the health portfolio for quite some time and I put a lot of faith in the fact that they must understand and know the depth of their portfolio. This decision must have been made quite some time ago, so there must be some information that they can share with us today. What was the business case that could justify this move? There must be some answer we could give this House today so we can move forward. We could be here for awhile. What does the Deputy Premier think of that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that sounds similar to a question asked earlier about the business case. Again, the Minister has provided to commit to providing that information to Members of this House before the end of this session. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am a little concerned that we have to wait until the end of this session; we should be waiting until tomorrow. Will the Deputy Premier be willing to commit to seeing if we could wield some of this high profile information, this high detailed information, because there must have been some business case put forward in order to decide to just move this out of Yellowknife. Would the Deputy Premier be able to bring forward this information tomorrow so we can deal with it in a timely manner, because we only have four days after tomorrow in this session to deal with this? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will work with the Minister in seeing what timelines can be put into this. He has committed to bring it forward before the end of this session. I am not sure if it will be Monday or Tuesday, but he has committed to getting that information and we will honour that before the end of this session. Thank you.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to hear at the same time when we get this high level, detailed information that really speaks of why we are moving it out of Yellowknife and affecting both the staff and the children, what was the motivation that is preparing to move this out of Yellowknife. The e-mails I am getting now don't say we want to move to Hay River. The e-mails are saying what is going on. Can we hear some reasoning behind the motivation? What is the true motivation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.