Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize Darrell Beaulieu with the Denendeh Investment Corporation and also Tom Hoefer, the executive director for the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, and everybody else that's come to visit us.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I'd like to give recognition of course to our distinguished and honoured guest here today, Mr. Whitford, who is also a resident of Yellowknife North. Thank you. I want to also recognize our Pages and we'd be lost without them. Our Pages from the riding of Yellowknife North that I'd like to acknowledge today are Niva Stephenson, Aurora Nind, Laila Noksana, Grace Clark, Sophie Clark, Shiri MacPherson, and Ida Fells. Also, I'd like to acknowledge a resident of Yellowknife North previously acknowledged, Ann Little, who also is the mother of our fellow MLA for Yellowknife Centre, Ms. Green. We also have in the gallery today Mr. John Stephenson, a resident of Yellowknife North and the chair for YK1, and all other folks that might be here from Yellowknife North today.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize constituents from the Deh Cho riding and congratulate the new elected mayor of Enterprise, Craig McMaster, and also leaders that perhaps I can’t see, so I'd like to acknowledge their presence as well, and at the same time, recognize people from the New Day Program: Laura, Lisa, and William as well.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Thebacha, Mr. Sebert.

I'd like to recognize my wife who has come here from Fort Smith today, and also my good friend Jim Umpherson from Yellowknife.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgements.

Members, I'd like to draw your attention to the gallery as well. I'd like to welcome Carmen Moore who’s here with us as well. Thanks for being here with us. Also in the gallery is Lori Cutler. She's Liaison to the Commissioner and she's with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Welcome. Mahsi. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. There's been a lot of stories in the media, a lot of talk about the government's fiscal strategy. The Premier has issued a press release. I am glad to hear that Territorial Formula Financing reduction from the federal government is not as much as first indicated. I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance to tell us what things the government is considering to increase revenues. Thank you.

Mahsi, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will be tabling a revenue options paper early in this session that we had an opportunity to share with Committee, and it points out a number of options we're looking at as far as increasing our revenue.

In the recent press release that I referred to in my first question, the Premier said the government needs to take decisive action to keep our fiscal problems from getting bigger. There are a lot of rumours about what decisive action means. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance what decisive actions are being considered to resolve the fiscal problem.

Decisive action is ensuring that our expenditures don't run away from the revenue that we're able to generate, and we have tasked our officials with putting some of the options together. They will share them with Cabinet, and I will share them with committee. Depending on some of the direction that we take, they will come forward in the May/June budget cycle.

I know the government typically borrows money at the end of each year for short-term until the following year's budget is approved. This is basically bridge financing. In 2014-15, a total of $242 million was borrowed, which is a jump of about $200 million from 2010. I would like to know where this government is going on short-term borrowing. Roughly, what is the goal of the short-term borrowing at the end of this Assembly in 2019-2020?

In the last number of years we've had to use some short-term borrowing, usually beginning of the fall, as our expenditures continue to out-strip our revenues. This is not an option that we want to use too often. I mean, the option's there, we will take advantage of it, but our goal at the end of the day is to ensure that our expenditures don't exceed our revenue.

Mahsi. Final supplementary. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In order to keep the short-term borrowing down, as the Minister indicated, we will need to have more revenues and possibly even cuts to the government. Would the Minister give us a rough estimate for the next year? What is expected to be gained in revenues and how much, if any, is expected to be saved through cuts?

Again, we have prepared a revenue options paper that will look at some of our potential revenue options. As far as the reductions, we're still going through that exercise right now. We will get some decision from Cabinet. I have committed to working with committee to keep them up-to-date as to what we do. Then we will see it go through the business planning process, which is in April and May, and whatever feedback we have back from committee and our back-and-forth, and that'll determine what we table as the main estimates in the May/June budget session.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was delighted to hear in the opening address that the government wants to create solutions to address homelessness, so my questions today are for the Minister responsible for Homelessness. Does the Minister support Housing First as a solution to chronic homelessness in Yellowknife?

Mahsi, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Minister responsible for Addressing Homelessness.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I do look at Housing First as a viable model for addressing homelessness. However, it is one model and one area. Even with Housing First, there will still be other avenues that we need to seek to alleviate homelessness altogether.