This is page numbers 1817 – 1858 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 4th 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 going.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was unfortunate that Greyhound made the corporate decision to not include the Northwest Territories in its routes in 2011. They have done likewise across this country with taking away a number of rural routes into other northern areas of other provinces. Some provinces have provided subsidies. I know in Manitoba they’ve provided a $3.9 million subsidy to Greyhound to operate rural routes in Manitoba.

In the Yukon, with Alaska there and the Alaska Highway running through the Yukon, Greyhound continues to operate in the Yukon and services a market in Alaska of close to a million people.

We just don’t have the scale of that type of market here in the Northwest Territories, and Greyhound made some business decisions and decided to cut the route into the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Mr. Speaker, my next question is: Has the Minister and his department looked at what it would take to get Greyhound back into the Northwest Territories?

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, we haven’t explored the prospect of subsidies to accompany Greyhound to operate. We certainly understand there’s a negative impact on tourism numbers in the South Slave because of the discontinuation of Greyhound service.

I would say that there’s a business opportunity here for somebody in the South Slave to pick up the slack and have some type of service, scheduled service, whether it’s to Grande Prairie or Peace River or wherever the case may be in northern Alberta, to connect to the Greyhound line. That’s an opportunity for somebody to pick up that slack.

If there is an entrepreneur in the South Slave that wants to take a look at that, we have programs and services with the Government of the Northwest

Territories that could help somebody get established and get that type of service started in the South Slave. Thank you.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

I understand the importance of the business concept and maybe somebody potentially doing that, but the importance is Greyhound’s national link. I’m just wondering if the Minister has been able to confirm – he indicated Manitoba – whether Yukon Territory subsidizes any Greyhound services.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, we contacted the Yukon departments of Highways, Public Works, Economic Development, Tourism and Culture. All of those departments in the Government of Yukon indicated that they do not in any way provide a subsidy to Greyhound to operate in the Yukon. Thank you.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Mr. Speaker, I am wondering if I can get a commitment from the department to actually investigate the costs of the subsidy and the potential of doing the subsidy to get this vital national link back into the Northwest Territories.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, if the Member would like us to contact Greyhound directly and begin some discussions on what it would cost to get that service, I guess that is something we can certainly find out and bring back to this House and see if there is support for something like that to happen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In keeping with my theme of no new territorial hospital this year, we seem to be following the legacy of a fiscally restrained Finance Minister, Minister Miltenberger, whose new health policy right now is don’t get sick, at least not this year.

We are hoping that the Minister of Finance can maybe clearly articulate, with all of these very expensive financial competing infrastructures that we will have in the near future from Inuvik-Tuk. We talked about a fibre optic line, a large scale. We have only about $180 million Visa to play with here and very limited revenue resources coming in here. How does the Minister expect to stretch this Visa, knowing full well, as he said, that this is going to be a 200 to 300 million dollar piece of infrastructure? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Minister of Finance

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have laid out the fiscal framework going forward to Members. The Stanton Hospital is

going to be done over time. We recognize there is planning work to be done. There’s money being budgeted, increasing amounts, over the coming years that will allow us to manage this project.

As we go forward, other projects will fall off and be completed. So we have looked at all the numbers, we looked at all these factors, and we are of the opinion – and we’ve laid it out before this House and before committee – that we can manage these projects with careful investments, some very strategic debt, and do the things we are doing to manage our expenses, and we can spend $1.6 million on programs and next year we can add another $50 million in addition to the Tuk-Inuvik Highway to our capital plan. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, again, I know the Minister has been courteous enough to come to committee and talk about some of this fiscal strategy. We would hope that the Member or the Minister would be able to do so with the public so they can also see what the strategy is all about.

I am still very confused. We are starting with an odometer riding on our budget or Visa baseline of $621 million. We have only $800 million to spend. We talked about all of these competing priorities. How is it, again specifically, are we going to move forward these large-scale infrastructures in the very near future?

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Minister of Finance

Mr. Speaker, we approved the capital plan last fall, in November I believe it was, where we laid out the fiscal arrangements, the capital plan that we can afford on a go-forward basis. That detail was laid out before Members, before this House. We are going to be involved in another capital plan going forward.

Not being able to use props and hold up charts and show them the fiscal strategy, I can tell the Member, and as the Member well knows, we have some very, very competent people in Finance who laid out the plan. We’ve had input in it. We have put in the key critical infrastructure investments we need to make. We’ve laid out a four-year plan for the budget we are on that’s going to allow us to do these things and still control our debt, keep $100 million cushion between us and the borrowing limit so that we have room to respond to emergencies.

I can tell that in this House, if the Member wants something further to provide comfort to the public, I guess we can have that discussion other than the main estimates, the capital plan and all the attached information. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, I will take the Minister up on his offer to share this information, but I also equally ask him to share this information with the public. They have clearly indicated that they want to know, they want to see the graphs, the charts and everything else, and I think we owe it to them.

We talked about the fact that the hospital is needed. The Minister has indicated in general means that this is going to be a large retrofit, yet we did not see anything, no signs or signals in this budget for this imminent piece of infrastructure, this territorial health piece of our structure and our future. When can we start seeing these types of signals being sent to the House? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Minister of Finance

Mr. Speaker, let me offer this to the Member and to the public as well. When we did the budget dialogues, people asked us, when you come back next year, give us more comprehensive information. We tried to give them a summary, but they wanted to have the detail. So what I’ll commit to in this House is that when we do our budget dialogues, we will lay out the fiscal strategy in detail, plain English, but enough detail so that folks will be able to see on the capital side, on the O and M side how we budgeted ourselves for the next four years, two years, when we go out to the communities. We can do that. I will give that commitment to the Member that when we do the budget dialogues for 2013, we will do that.

In regard to the Stanton, the Stanton is going to be appearing more significantly starting in the next capital go round and all the years hence with money being added in significant quantities as the project starts to evolve and be defined. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Again, I do appreciate the Minister for coming up with that information and continuing the dialogue that he’s promised. But a very simple question: Will we see a shovel in the dirt with a new territorial hospital within the life of the 17th Assembly? Thank you.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Minister of Finance

Yes, Mr. Speaker

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s no surprise to Members that I’m a big supporter and champion of seniors’ issues and certainly their rights. In the 16th Assembly, I brought up the issue

of an NWT Seniors’ Charter. In my belief, it would complement the work here that we do in the Assembly. It would serve as a mission statement as to how the government sets out its commitment, well-being and support for quality living with seniors.

My question for the Minister responsible for Seniors is: What does he use for his guiding principle and mandate to build and work within a relationship with

NWT seniors to ensure we’re meeting their needs? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Minister Responsible for Seniors

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m sorry; I was distracted and didn’t hear the question.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Hawkins, could you re-ask the question for the Minister, please?

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I include my preamble as before? It’s so exciting.

What is the Minister responsible for Seniors using as his guiding mandate that builds and bridges the relationship between his responsibilities as Minister responsible for Seniors and certainly the relationship and their needs by seniors in the NWT? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Minister Responsible for Seniors

Mr. Speaker, as the Members know, the responsibility for the Minister under seniors comes with actually no budgets. However, we do draw from interdepartmental pool where Health and Social Services provides some funding, some coordinator, some support to the seniors and the Seniors’ Society, and then the funding comes from the various departments to the NWT Seniors’ Society as an example. Thank you.