I’ve heard various numbers. I’ve heard as high as $135 million, but I’ll take the word of Mr. Kalgutkar. What was the percentage? What was our interest rate, if you will, with the $125 million at our disposal, Madam Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d have to ask the Member to clarify the interest rate that we would lend to ourselves, that we’d lend to other people or other businesses?

How much would the GNWT charge for having this money at our disposal when we were lending it out to organizations?

We made one loan of any significant size and that was to Discovery. That interest rate was part of a broader package of negotiations that included the movement of headquarters positions and those

types of things. The interest rate was in the range of about 10 percent.

I think we’re going down the wrong rabbit hole. I’m not looking at what we were lending this money out to a proponent that was wanting to borrow against that fund. We as a government had access to money from the federal government. The federal government would charge this government a fee, a percentage, for the use of this $125 million. Madam Chair, what was that percentage?

I apologize if I seem like I’m being obtuse or a little slow here. We get the money and we pay 1.4 percent.

I heard 1.4 or 5 percent. If I’m wrong, please correct me at the next opportunity to the Minister. Where I’m going with this point, Madam Chair, is we had at our disposal opportunity money at 1.45 percent, but the government went out and increased our debt limit or our borrowing limit up to $800 million, which obviously is required, but we dissolved this amount of ability to borrow at 1.45 percent and I believe now, Madam Chair, if we can get confirmation, we’re now paying almost three times that interest rate for the very same money that we had at a third of that. Can we get some clarification if that is indeed the math that I’m using here, that we lost opportunity at 1.45 percent to pay three times more to borrow that same amount of money back?

Thank you. The Member is correct. At the benefit of being able to borrow money at a very low rate now, we no longer have the Opportunities Fund, we no longer have that benefit.

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister clarifying that. It’s a bit disheartening knowing that we had $125 million at our disposal to do good work and now we’ve had to collapse this Opportunities Fund to a higher borrowing limit and paying three times the interest rate. It baffles my mind that that was a great deal. Anyone who is out there listening or anyone in this Chamber now, their ears have perked up. This has put us in a real precarious situation in terms of costing the taxpayers a lot more money. Can the Minister maybe indicate really in this arrangement where was the value added to the taxpayers in terms of getting a larger amount of money, but we’re paying a heck of a lot more interest rate on that money now, Madam Chair?

Thank you. The discussion with the federal government, they made it clear to us that they were not going to cover off the Opportunities Fund under the borrowing limit. We had an arrangement prior to that, it was satisfactory and worked fine, that the Auditor General said was fine and the federal government, Finance Canada said in their opinion they

disagreed and this would become part of our borrowing limit. We are not in a position to do that, so we made the decision, we were negotiating an increase to our borrowing limit. It wasn’t going to be bumped up enough to accommodate the Opportunities Fund. So in the overall long-term cost benefit, we rolled up the Opportunities Fund and went with going with the borrowing limit. Thank you.

Thank you. I do appreciate the Minister giving a very detailed approach and finally sharing some of these numbers in its gross format to show the people of the Northwest Territories what’s happening with the interest rates, what’s happening with the borrowing limit. No question, but more of an observation.

I really have to wrap my head around this in terms of did we really get a bang for our dollar with the ability to borrow more money, but we’re now paying three times more interest rate. It’s one in which I have to really calculate and I might come back to the House with future questions down the road. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. I’ll take that as a comment. The Minister agrees. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just following up on my colleague for a sec, were there conditions on how that money could be used, the Opportunities Fund money could be used or any restrictions that the federal government put on that money? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There were fairly broad conditions, but it mainly had to be tied to economic development activities. Thank you.

Thank you. My understanding, is it public what the amount of return was on the money that was lent out and is it possible to report whatever our return was minus that 1.4 percent?

Thank you, Madam Chair. The loan was public. It was very topical and extensively covered in the newspaper. The loan was repaid in full early and I indicated what the interest rate was. I don’t know. I’ll ask Mr. Kalgutkar. I don’t think we have that detail. So we don’t have that detail on that particular loan here. It’s been wrapped up and paid off for some time, but that information is available and I agree to provide it to committee if that’s their wish. Thank you.

I would appreciate receiving that and how it was calculated in terms of the numbers.

Now, just looking at corporate income tax, I know last year it was reported, I think by this Minister, that it was almost a record year for diamond

exports. I believe it was in the order of 2.1 to 2.3 billion dollars and obviously our corporate income tax is quite low. Is that because those dollars will be reflected in this fiscal year in terms of corporate tax? Thank you.

Thank you. There are a couple of things and I’ll ask Mr. Kalgutkar if he wants to add further. Corporations can reach back three years when they do their filings for corporate income tax and make adjustments and do whatever is in their benefit in terms of how they file and where and what amounts and what’s in their filing. As Mr. Aumond indicated, we as well are just concluding the repayment of a large overpayment that we received a number of years ago that we paid back over three years. Thank you.

Minister Miltenberger, do I need to go to Mr. Kalgutkar?

Madam Chair, it may sound more authoritative if Mr. Kalgutkar says it.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. I wasn’t sure where I was going. Mr. Kalgutkar.