Marsi, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 61-19(2), Interim Estimates (Operations Expenditures), April 1 to June 30, 2020. Marsi cho.

Does committee agree? Thank you, committee. We'll take a short recess and resume.

---SHORT RECESS

I will call committee back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 61-19(2), Interim Estimates (Operations Expenditures), April 1 to June 30, 2020. Does the Minister of Finance have any opening remarks?

Thank you, Madam Chair, yes. Good morning, Madam Chair. Today, I am presenting Interim Estimates 2020-2021 for the Government of the Northwest Territories. The interim estimates provide the necessary appropriation authority to support the government's operations for the three-month period of April 1 to June 30, 2020.

The interim estimates will allow public services to continue to be provided until the main estimates for the fiscal year have been fully debated and approved by the Legislative Assembly. Interim estimates are not used regularly. They are a tool that can be used to allow the Assembly more time to finalize a budget, typically the first budget of a new Assembly. Interim estimates have been used by this Legislative Assembly most recently in 2016-2017.

During the May-June sitting of the Assembly, the review of the 2020-2021 Main Estimates is anticipated to resume, and, subject to approval at that time, these interim estimates will be superseded by the main estimates.

As Members know, these interim estimates had to be prepared quickly. This current sitting of the Assembly will conclude today, to allow Members of the Legislative Assembly and the territorial public service to focus its efforts on preparing for and responding to COVID-19. Departments worked together to bring these interim estimates before us today. These estimates include the following:

• Amounts required for the first three months were used, as identified by all departments as part of the development of the Main Estimates 2020-2021 process. An exception to this approach was required to address contracts, grants, and contributions in a way that will ensure compliance with the Financial Administration Act, or the FAA;
• Under the FAA, a department cannot enter into a contract or obligation without the appropriation to do so. Amounts for service contracts have therefore been fully allocated for the 2020-2021 fiscal year to ensure compliance with the FAA. The exception to this approach is the Territorial Police Service Agreement, for which 50 percent of the amount has been allocated in this interim appropriation, and
• Similarly, in order to comply with the FAA, amounts for grants and contributions for organizations have been fully allocated. The only exceptions with respect to the full allocation of grants and contributions were for larger entities, such as education authorities, Health and Social Services authorities, and the NWT Housing Corporation. These entities have been funded based on their cash requirements for the interim period;
• To address the anticipated high demand for health services, a 25 percent contingency has been added to the compensation and benefits for the Department of Health and Social Services, and to the portion of grants and contributions to health authorities allocated in this interim appropriation, representing $39 million;
• To address any increase to the Income Assistance Program, a 25 percent contingency has been added to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment budget for this item, representing $1.8 million; and
• To ensure sufficient appropriation for all departments to the end of the interim period, a 5 percent contingency has also been allocated, representing $41 million.

The proposed interim estimates total $872 million. These estimates also include $615,000 for a dialysis unit in Hay River within Health and Social Services Authority, and $600,000 for Indigenous language revitalization in Education Culture and Employment. This will allow for funding of these important matters during the interim period. That concludes my opening remarks.

Thank you, Minister. Do you have witnesses?

Yes, I do.

Sergeant-at-Arms, can you escort the witnesses to the Chamber, please. Minister, would you introduce your witness for the record.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar beside me. He is the deputy minister of Finance.

Thank you. I will now open the floor to general comments. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I would like to start offering my personal thanks for what I'm sure is really, truly a heroic effort on the part of our Finance staff working with other departments to pull together this set of interim estimates. I do personally want to thank them all for that work that they had to do over the weekend. I have one question, though. It's about the 5 percent contingency that the Minister noted in her opening remarks. I would like to know whether that 5 percent contingency includes contracts and grants and contributions. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, Madam Chair, I appreciate the Member's comments. The department did work tremendous hours over the last many days. Other departments did as well, as well as at the same time dealing with their COVID planning. The 5 percent is not meant to go on top of grants, contributions, et cetera; at least, not initially, it was not. There were different individuals working on this, and in the bit of the rush and the fact that we wanted to get this before committee here today, for Lands, Legislative Assembly, ITI, and the Health and Social Services Authority, there is an additional 5 percent on their contracts amount. This results in approximately $3.5 million, $2 million of which, actually, is going to go to the health authority. Ultimately, it was determined that, really, what might have been seen at one point as an error might now actually turn out to be something positive in that it's giving extra money to an area that is likely to need it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I in no way want to take away from the work that the staff did over the weekend. If these departments, the 5 percent contingency was applied, this is something that can still be squared up when we get the main estimates when we sit next in May-June. That's where this can be squared up? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There was no intention to permanently add to the base budget for contracts and grants and contributions in these areas. We will certainly make sure to have another look at that when the time comes in May-June. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Are there any further questions under general comments? Seeing no further general comments, we will review the supplementary estimates by department. The committee has agreed to begin the review with summary of interim estimates by department, and we will start with the Legislative Assembly. Does the committee agree to forego general comments on each department?

All right. We will go into department, Legislative Assembly. Questions? Schedule 1, operations expenditures, department, Legislative Assembly, appropriation authority required, $8,712,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will move on to department, Education, Culture and Employment. Any questions? Seeing no questions, summary of interim estimates, department, Education, Culture and Employment, appropriation authority required, $126,592,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. We will continue on. The next department is Environment and Natural Resources. Appropriation authority required, $53,818,000. Does committee agree? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to ask a single question. My understanding is that the grants and contributions for all departments have been funded yearly. Can I confirm that, for Environment and Natural Resources, the full amount for the Community Harvesters Assistance Program is being funded? The annual amount is being funded in this interim budget?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have that particular item broken down, but if I am not mistaken, that is a grant or contribution, and therefore, it would have been funded as 100 percent. If I am in error, Madam Chair, I will get back to the committee immediately. Sorry, Madam Chair. That is in the grants and contributions. Yes, sorry, it is here. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that we went through the effort to fully fund all the grants and contributions, because I think, given the nature of the coronavirus, we will see a strain put on a number of those. I know that applies to numerous departments, but I just wanted to speak to this one specifically. Our Chief Public Health Officer has said that a good way to social distance is to get people out on the land. That is what CHAP funding is for, so I was just hoping that I could get a commitment with the Minister of Finance to have a conversation with ENR about getting this funding out of door sooner rather than later.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We were just looking at what the total budget is. We will make sure that it is prioritized, and I am confident that I can work with the Minister for ENR. If there is anything that we need to do to do that, I agree; we will be following all of the advice of the Chief Public Health Officer, including this. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Are there any further comments? Seeing no further comments, we will go back to department, Environment and Natural Resources, appropriation authority required, $53,818,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Next department, Executive and Indigenous Affairs, appropriation authority required, $7,873,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Next department, Department of Finance, appropriation authority required, $110,265,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Department, Health and Social Services, appropriation authority required, $268,147,000. Does committee agree? Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to confirm. I guess I received my final "yes" with respect to the funding for the dialysis expansion for Hay River. Is that included in item number 6? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, Madam Chair. It's under contributions, Madam Chair, and yes, I can confirm that it is included here in this appropriation.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That's all.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that we have provided a 25 percent increase to compensation and benefits, I believe, for Health and Social Services, to allow some of our nurses to -- there will likely be overtime. Can I just get a sense from the Minister, if the coronavirus increases and Health and Social Services goes beyond the budgeted amount, does that become a cash flow problem? I want to make sure that they have access to resources to deal with this and how would that work if they spend this money. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. All departments have a 5 percent contingency, as well, which I realize isn't a large cushion on top of 25, but there is some additional cushion. I guess, what I want to say, number one, is that no one should be worrying about their salary at this point in time. If the Department of Finance has to use tools within its disposal, it will do that, so that nobody should be worrying about their salary right now. We will sort out what we need to sort out to make sure that everyone gets paid to do the work they need to do to keep people safe. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Are there any further questions? If there are no further questions, we will go back to the department, Health and Social Services, appropriation authority required, $268,147,000. Does committee agree?

Next department, Industry, Tourism and Investment, appropriation authority required, $36,615,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Department of Infrastructure, appropriation authority required, $140,005,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to Department of Justice, appropriation authority required, $54,324,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to Department of Lands, appropriation authority required, $9,591,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, appropriation authority required, $56,257,000. Does committee agree?

All right. Now, we'll move on to operations expenditures, appropriation total, $872,199,000. Does committee agree?

Under schedule 2, establishing borrowing limits for the Government of the Northwest Territories, appropriation authority required, $940,471,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Do you agree that you have concluded consideration of Tabled Document 61-19(2), Interim Estimates (Operations Expenditures), April 1 to June 30, 2020?

Thank you, Minister. Thank you to the witness. Sergeant-at-Arms, can you please escort the witness out. Does committee agree that this concludes consideration of Tabled Document 61-19(2)?

Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.