Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Member’s statement he made some very clear comments about the public purse and having to mind the public purse. It’s an issue that we are, of course, very aware of. We work collectively on that all the time. We have an Aa1 credit rating. We have the lowest debt to GDP ratio in the country. Our debt servicing costs are the lowest in the country. We just tabled our public accounts information. We just approved our capital budget.

As we look at the revenues, of course, we also have to look at the other side of the equation, which is managing expenditures and expectations and the prodigious proclivity to engage in ramping up expenditures. As a government, we are very concerned and cognizant of our responsibility as fiscal financial stewards and do the things necessary to keep our Aa1 credit rating and the fact that we are on such secure, stable footing.

The half response or quasi attempt to answer the question leaves me and the public at the Minister’s mercy and convenience.

The recently tabled Interim Public Accounts for the Year Ended March 31, 2013, has tobacco tax collected in the main estimates at $17.326 million, yet the 2013 actual collected is reported at $15.587 million, a shortfall of $1.739 million.

Can the Minister explain this approximate $2 million in the shortfall? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, one is called an estimate and one is called an actual. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it’s clearly unfortunate we’re not hearing answers here today.

Can the Minister reassure the public, given what I just quoted in the public accounts, that self-reporting of tobacco sold in the NWT is foolproof?

Mr. Speaker, I don’t think any human system, any tax system or any reporting system is foolproof, so I can’t give that ironclad guarantee. I can tell you we have a system that we believe is effective. We have a lot of very helpful feedback and advice from the Member. We’ve exchanged ideas. We’ve put into effect some of the recommendations he’s made and we are taxing due diligence. We are confident that the system we have is effective. We are going to make improvements like having all the black stock cigarettes are going to now move towards getting them so they have a mark and they are marked and we can track them better. We are going to do more audits and those types of things. We have a system that we believe is effective. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s obvious, by our own public accounts, we have an issue, and it’s painfully clear today that the Minister is not answering the specific questions pertaining to the tobacco self-reporting. I agree that the Minister putting provinces’ stamps on tobacco does have merits in tax control, but it does nothing to address the self-reporting.

Will this Minister subject his tobacco tax collector process to the rigours of the Auditor General of Canada for review? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I’m standing and I’m answering every question. The fact that the Member doesn’t like the answers doesn’t mean I’m not answering the question fully and in a forthright manner as befits a Minister of the government. Everything we do is subject to audit. If there is any part of the operation that Members want us to put under a magnifying glass, as they have done in the past in different areas, absolutely we will put any system we have under the rigours of the Auditor General. If they can give us advice and recommendations that we haven’t contemplated, we’ll look at those. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Colleagues, before we move on today again, I would like to welcome to the House chief of Yellowknives Dene First Nation, Mr. Ernest Betsina. Welcome to the House.

---Applause

Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask questions to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. In my research on the housing in the Sahtu region, it shows a high percentage of households that reported at least one problem in their houses. In Fort Good Hope it was 68 percent; in Deline it was 72 percent; Norman Wells, 25 percent; and Tulita, 69 percent. I wanted to ask the Minister of Housing, with all the initiatives that I understand are going to be happening, do some of the reported incidents have to deal with water damage or molds in the public housing that we have in the Sahtu region?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t get as many concerns regarding mold as we used to. It was quite an issue a few years ago. We have taken steps to try and remediate some of this. Education of the tenants and our own maintenance staff, I think, was a big first step. The reports of mold in some of the units, not only in the Sahtu but all across the Northwest Territories, are coming down a bit. We look forward to having that number down to basically zero here very shortly. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, certainly I am with the Minister to bring the issue of mold down to zero in our public housing units. Is it possible for the Minister to direct the staff in Housing to look at the units in the Sahtu to look and see if there is a mold issue? I have been getting some calls that there are being some mold issues in the Sahtu. Look at all the public housing units: in Fort Good Hope, 53 units; Norman Wells, 36 units; in Deline there are 88; in Tulita there 69 units in that community. Again, do a sweep and say there is water damage, possibly there is some mold in this area, then that can give you a clean bill of health on the public housing units regarding mold in these units.

Mr. Speaker, our maintenance staff in all of the small communities, they do condition ratings every year where they go from unit to unit and look at some of the work that needs to be done in there. They kind of use those condition ratings as a basis for some of the major improvement programs that we have through the Public Housing Program in our small communities. We do go through the units every year and identify all the potential maintenance issues, and then our staff in the small communities will then start generating work orders and remediate a lot of the issues that they find in the units. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, fair enough. I am asking if the Minister can work with staff in regional offices. Can he then direct them to look at the public housing units, give a clean bill of health to the public housing units, and say yes, we checked all 53 houses in Fort Good Hope? We did it, there are no signs of mold, there is no dispute, then we can have, once and for all, this issue dealt with for all, not only in the Sahtu but other communities also in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I think I have already answered the Member’s question when I said that we will do our condition ratings on these units. Most of the condition ratings have already been done for this year and that will give our maintenance people in the communities an opportunity to identify some of the issues that the Member speaks of, not only identify them but start to do work to repair those, not only with these particular issues but with everything else that may be wrong with the units.

With all the investments that we’ve been making in the improvement of our public housing stock the last number of years, the condition ratings in the communities are getting to be higher and the percentages are getting to be higher. They’re identifying a lot of the issues and they’re starting to take the steps to do all the maintenance on them. I can assure the Member that through the condition ratings they would be able to identify any potential mold issues, and if they do find them, then they remediate them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Certainly I did hear the Minister. Maybe I’ll be more direct in asking the Minister if he would he commit to a time frame that these condition ratings can be done within the next three months, for example. Molds can be found anywhere. There are a lot of damages in the public housing units that mold can become a health hazard for the family. Between now and, say, New Years, can the Minister look at these condition ratings of these units and direct the staff members to take action within this time frame? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I will follow up on the status of our condition ratings. I do know that usually by fall all the condition ratings are done and any potential maintenance issues in the units are identified.

Again, dealing with the mold issue, I think through the investment we’ve made in the last number of years into the improvement of our public housing units, we’ve been able to see a lot of those issues come down. There are a number of factors. We have a website where the public can access, and for those that don’t have a computer, I’m sure our LHOs will do some education on their part. It is a joint effort between the tenants and the local housing authority. So, again, I will follow up on the status of the condition ratings, but I can assure the Member that most of them are probably done by now and they’re identifying all the maintenance work that needs to be done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to congratulate my colleague across the floor, Minister Tom Beaulieu, for taking on the big portfolio for Transportation.

My question is: Can the Minister provide an update on the relationship of the GNWT with the community of Fort Providence since the bridge has been in operation for about a year? Mahsi.