Thank you, Member. Members' statements. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Members' statements. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. This morning, I woke up and I said, "Why, why am I here?" I am here, Madam Speaker, for my constituents in Nunakput and to make a difference across our territory. I am here for our elders, our youth, all residents in the territory and the Beaufort-Delta. I am here to serve Nunakput, Madam Speaker. I listen and try to make a difference in our constituents' lives, that we could try to make a change and help them with their tough tasks that they have ahead of them, which sometimes feel like mountains, so big that they can't change, but we are here to change it. Anyone who asks for help from us, we are here to serve. That is our job. We are here to serve. We are here to listen.

When you take a look back, the jobs that we lack, we have to stimulate our economy. We need jobs. We need housing. The cost of housing, rental scale, everything, that has to be looked at, lower cost of living, income support, elders' facilities so we can take care of our elders in our home communities, supporting our local governments to make their jobs easier and not stretching them so far that they cannot provide service.

I will do my job to hold this House and this government accountable, Madam Speaker. I will hold them accountable, but I will work together with them to make a better NWT. We have to take a step back and look in the mirror, every one of us, and ask ourselves why we are here. We are here to work together to serve the people, and we are put in a position that we are blessed to be here, to serve all 33 communities across our great territory. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

I would like to recognize my husband, Jozef Carnogursky, today. He is here to visit me. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I want to recognize my good friend Chris O'Brien, who splits his time between Yellowknife and Toronto. He and I filed the first and only successful request for an investigation under the Environmental Rights Act on April 22, 1991, into air pollution from Giant Mine. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Member. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to welcome my beautiful wife, Jenny, and my son Joseph into the House today. I am so blessed to have them down here. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, replies to budget address (day 5 of 7). Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. The Member for Yellowknife North has set a high standard for the replies to the budget address, so I want to recognize his passion and insights. I'm not sure I can come anywhere close to that performance, but I do wish to encourage all my fellow regular MLAs to use this opportunity to set forth their views on the budget, our fiscal situation, and how to translate our priorities and mandate into action through this first budget of the 19^th Assembly.

I will use my reply to the budget address to set out some thoughts on the following:

• A quick summary of the 2020-2021 budget;
• High-level observations on the process for the 2020-2021 budget;
• Comments on the fiscal strategy;
• What is not in the 2020-2021 budget; and
• Concluding remarks.

A summary of the 2020-2021 budget and fiscal context. The 2020-2021 budget is a refreshing change from the budgets and practices of the previous Assembly and Cabinet. Although the framework for this budget was set by the previous Assembly, there are no new cuts to programs and services to fund infrastructure. This budget is pretty much status quo, with only $94 million of new spending, or about 5 percent of the total budget, most of the new spending is tied to matching federal funding and forced growth through increases arising from the recent collective agreements. I agree and can support most of the new spending in this budget including the following:

• Increased funding for mental health and new long-term care beds at the old Stanton hospital;
• More funding for the Arctic Energy Alliance for energy conservation and use of renewables;
• An increase in the funding for Environment and Natural Resources after continuous and devastating cuts of 10 percent over four year. This increased funding often comes from the federal government, but is welcome support for caribou and protected areas;
• Funding to turn the integrated case management pilot into a permanent program, which I strongly support;
• Creation of a specialized territorial support team to assist with youth mental health and additional funding for the successful Northern Distance Learning program;
• Negotiation of a co-management regime for offshore oil and gas, even if there is zero prospect and interest in this activity; and
• A small increase in funding for the NWT Housing Corporation with its growing gap in core housing needs across the Northwest Territories.

About the budget process, Madam Speaker, I can say that the relationship and negotiations with Cabinet over this budget have been cordial and respectful, a much different and welcome change from the last four years. The real crunch has yet to happen in terms of what is to be put forward in a supplemental appropriation to begin to deal with the mandate and the priorities of regular MLAs.

It was difficult to jump into main estimates without more detailed business plans this time around. MLAs were asked to approve millions of dollars of expenditures without adequate justification or explanation in some cases. I do look forward to an approach of four-year rolling plans that will allow greater transparency and accountability.

Some comments, now, Madam Speaker on the fiscal context. Despite the attempts by the Finance Minister to paint a picture of financial stability and sustainability, there are very dark clouds on the horizon. The Minister said that we will exceed the federal borrowing limit of $1.3 billion by 2020-2021. The operating surpluses, which are required for spending on capital projects or infrastructure, will crash dramatically from $203 million this year to only $3 million in 2023-2024. This drop is due to declining revenues, and, in my view, over-spending on capital projects initiated by the last Cabinet, which put roads over people.

The Finance Minister has promised creativity, innovation, and systematic evaluation of programs and services. This will take time and extraordinary focus. It cannot possibly make up the fiscal shortfall, or make a complete strategy moving forward. Put simply, we need more revenues to continue to provide the current level of programs and services, let alone the promises made in the mandate. The Finance Minister has said we have $25 million to work with to begin to make progress on the mandate over the next four years. That's only about a quarter of the new spending in the 2020-2021 budget alone. The Finance Minister has not shared a costing of the mandate items, despite having been asked that several times. What we do know is that each of the large infrastructure projects, Taltson expansion, the Slave Geological Province Road, and the Mackenzie Valley Highway, will cost a lot more than $1 billion each. We have to stop fooling ourselves and the public that these can be done at the same time as we simply cannot afford them, even if the federal government gave us, or other potential partners, all the money. There would be lots of costs in simply managing these projects and the required O and M, as we have seen with the Stanton hospital with its ever-increasing operational costs, some of which are found in this budget, too.

What we do need, and I will continue to push for, is some realistic and detailed economic evaluations of the big three projects against other ways of investing public funds in terms of the number of jobs created, the location of those jobs, building of local capacity, how our labour force matches with job opportunities and other ways of more objectively examining value for money. If I had to choose between investing a billion dollars in the SGP road or Taltson expansion, and getting all of our housing out of core need for $500 million, and having 20 years of universal childcare, Madam Speaker, it's a no brainer. We would create more jobs, especially outside of Yellowknife, with an investment in housing and childcare, and help our residents to better participate in our economy. Our government needs more money. This was something that the last Cabinet refused to take seriously. We are in a financial and fiscal crunch now with too many big projects being promised, even with matching 75 percent federal funding. The GNWT 25 percent share still comes at a cost that stops, or slows down, other initiatives and investments, especially housing and diversifying our economy.

I pushed the Finance Minister to take the initiative to begin a serious public debate around revenue options and she seems ready to take up that challenge. We need to get the federal government to allow us to keep more, if not all, of our own source revenues to begin to build sound fiscal sustainability. An increase in our borrowing limit is only a partial and short-term solution. Again, we need to raise more money and get to keep it. It is a very serious problem when we raise more money from tobacco and alcohol than we get to keep from the extractive sector. Corporate taxes are a less than ideal way to capture revenues from non-renewable resources. Our one-time natural capital needs also be shared with future generations. A resource tax or capital tax should be seriously examined as a more equitable way of retaining the benefits of resource development. If you don't believe me on this point, look no further than the international expert hired by ITI, who evaluated our management of non-renewable resources and found we should be retaining more revenues. We also need to look at other ways of generating revenues including a high-income personal tax bracket, which other jurisdictions have added, including the federal government, reviewing the fees associated with the post-devolution resource management, raising tobacco taxes that were last increased in 2017, and other means. I welcome this public debate.

What is not in the 2020-2021 budget. I recognize that this budget is status quo and that the mandate will require additional funding, partly through supplementary appropriations. The budget address was virtually devoid of any discussion of the commitment to, and need for, additional resources to ensure completion of the ongoing Indigenous land rights negotiations, and implementation of the agreements already in place. To assist with these efforts, our government will also need to seriously move forward with implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. If we are to achieve more than the one agreement-in-principle at one of the negotiating tables in the last Assembly, more resources and a fresh approach are needed.

There was no mention in the budget of the potential for benefits from the billion-dollar remediation project, here in Yellowknife, around Giant Mine, or the work required to reclaim the Norman Wells fields, or other areas such as Cantung Mine. The remediation economy is the equivalent of at least one of the big projects, and it won't cost us very much, if anything, to get this work by the federal government or the private sector, but we also have to work very hard to ensure that Northerners will benefit from that work. Of course, we must also put in place a proper post-devolution system to identify and manage environmental liabilities before they come back to this government and taxpayers. This is something the last Cabinet failed to do, as we have seen with the Cantung mine, Cameron Hills, and the rollback of mandatory financial security in the Public Land Act. The Finance Minister must stop this bleeding now, working with her Cabinet colleagues.

There is little to no mention of the untapped potential of arts and culture to diversify the economy. This is another no-brainer and there isn't even a whisper of it in the budget. Where is the promised arts strategy that should be used to help identify opportunities for investment and a supplementary appropriation that puts that into action?

There are many other commitments from the mandate and elsewhere that will require attention and investment, likely well beyond the $25 million that is available under the current fiscal strategy. This includes addressing the municipal funding gap; completing the network of the single-window service centres in all our communities; more work to protect caribou habitat; building food security, including an increase to the Community Harvester Assistance Program; other food production initiatives; and last but not least, housing. Without affordable, suitable, and adequate housing, and 42 percent of our population does not have that, people cannot meaningfully participate in our economy.

In conclusion, Madam Speaker, the decisions of the last Cabinet and the majority of the last Assembly have clearly boxed us in, in terms of our fiscal situation and budgetary options. The cuts to programs and services to fund big infrastructure projects has pushed us closer than ever to the debt wall, resulting in more short-term borrowing and increased debt servicing costs. The infrastructure from the last Cabinet continues to lead to increased O and M costs and has generally failed to bring the anticipated benefits, whether it is the Mackenzie Valley fibre link that has not tied in communities, the failure to support tourism in Tuktoyaktuk, the lack of northern workers on the Tlicho All-Season Road, or the deficiencies in the Stanton Territorial Hospital building.

I am pleased to see this Cabinet beginning to promote a more balanced approach to our mandate and this budget with its people-focus. We need to spend more on our basic needs, whether it is housing, healthcare, or education, for the long-term outcomes our citizens deserve, and find the resources to do that. This means more revenues and new fiscal arrangements with Ottawa.

I sincerely thank my Cabinet colleagues and their staff, and my committee colleagues, for much hard work in getting us to this point. I have the feeling that the chances for change, transformative change, are greater now than any other point during my time in this Assembly. Madam Speaker, I may actually vote in favour of this budget, which has not happened for quite a long time. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Replies to the budget address (day 5 of 7). Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Replies to the budget address (day 5 of 7). Item 7, acknowledgements. Item 8, oral questions. Member for Thebacha.

Madam Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Finance. My first question is: since the Stanton P3 and the legacy, 100-bed, long-term unit for Yellowknife have crippled our government for moving forward, could the Minister tell me who makes up the Boreal Health partnerships?

Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. As to the first part of the Member's comment, about being crippled, I would reply to simply say that this actually did come in on budget and that the project costs for construction were as expected, and that the contract costs are as expected. To the second half of the Member's question, Madam Speaker, the Boreal Partnership is made up of HOCHTIEF PPP Solutions, Bird Capital Limited, and BBGI Corporation. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Can the Minister tell us who owns the majority of shares of Dexterra, as well as where is the company based out of, and what the emergency number that is used by Stanton hospital staff after 5:00 p.m.?

Dexterra, I believe, is owned by a company named Fairfax Financial Holdings. They are based out of Ontario, for their corporate office. With respect to emergency numbers, those numbers are available to Stanton Territorial Hospital staff and, if there is some concern that the Member is raising on that, rather than having those numbers put here in the House, I will ensure that those numbers are, in fact, posted appropriately and communicated to staff in the hospital.

I want the Minister of Finance to justify and explain to the people of Thebacha and the NWT how all the shortfalls in this territorial hospital are going to be dealt with and who is going to be paying for those shortfalls?

A number of initiatives have been begun in the last few months as a response to the fact that there were some challenges with this building when it initially came online. It's always expected that there is going to be some difficulty with a building that is the size and complexity of Stanton Territorial Hospital. Indeed, this hospital is arguably one of if not the most complex building ever undertaken by the Northwest Territories government, certainly one of the most technical in terms of the kinds of equipment, so while we are cognizant that there have been challenges, there is work under way. There are committees that have been formed now between BHP and the GNWT, to ensure that partners are adequately addressing issues in a prompt manner. There is currently a senior executive committee that meets now to oversee the fixing of any difficulties or problems that arise. Assistance is being delivered by the Department of Infrastructure to the partners over at the hospital so that, again, there are adequate hands on deck, essentially, to make sure that things are being looked at. As for the payment, there is a very detailed schedule in the contract where, if there are issues that should have been delivered by the partner, then the partner has to pay for that. There is contract monitoring to ensure, indeed, that, if there are performance issues that fall within the contract, then the payments that are being made regularly to the provider of services deducts that from their monthly payment.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary, Member for Thebacha.

Madam Speaker, finally, I would like to address the mayor of Yellowknife's media statement of February 19, 2020. The new Stanton hospital tax bill for the amount of $4.5 million is the highest taxed building in the NWT. The mayor of Yellowknife made a statement that she did not have to raise taxes because of a new assessed property value of the new Stanton hospital. My question is: as all monies out of public funds belong to the people of the NWT, are you comfortable as the Minister of Finance with this statement?

We have a good partnership with the City of Yellowknife and with the mayor of Yellowknife, and I am confident that she was making every effort to explain to people who she represents how grants in lieu work and how taxes are paid by the Government of the Northwest Territories. We do not pay taxes. We pay a grant in lieu, and the grant in lieu supports the city when the Government of the Northwest Territories is using what would be municipal land that the municipality could otherwise garner tax-based revenue from. Instead, there is a grant in lieu that is paid for the use of that land and, obviously, for all of the various city-based services that the GNWT uses on the footprint of the hospital. I am confident that the grant-in-lieu policy has been applied appropriately and fairly for the City of Yellowknife, for Stanton, as it is to all of the tax-base communities across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Speaker.