Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And Madam Chair, I just want to say I was flipping through the contribution agreement trying to find the specific section, but it-- just at the risk of repeating, it is quite clear that it is-- there is not to be any dividend payments, share buybacks, shareholder distributions, any management bonuses relevant to the term of the agreement. So, I mean, there is no lack of clarity that this funding is not meant to be for those purposes - board member salaries or parent corporations to a third party, etcetera. So it is quite clear.

I do not believe there have been any challenges in terms of any of the airlines meeting the requirements. Again, let me get that confirmation from Mr. Koe. I agree with the Member, this is important.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Koe.

Thank you. Member.

MR. O'REILLY; Thanks, Madam Chair. It's my understanding that at least one of the airlines I'll name them Canadian North does receive financial assistance from other jurisdictions, possibly in Nunavut, possibly federal. How is that factored in to the calculations and their financial situation when we have to decide how we're going to allocate our funding as well? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, so I think it is only Canadian North, if I'm not mistaken, that is of a size that it would be receiving funding from other jurisdictions. They have to report all of their receipts, all of their revenue sources to the Department of Finance. But, again, the funding that we are distributing to them, again, this a federally-- mainly a federal program. The amount that they get from the federal government is for the wage subsidy program. So it is not business relief. It is not relief to assist them in their maintaining of their operations of their fleet of, you know, the cost associated. Otherwise, it is really-- they're two separate things. They also do receive money from the Government of Nunavut which also, again, does get reported to us. But Nunavut is funding for their-- the flights and the routes and the scheduled flights that are within Nunavut, and we are funding for operations that are here in the Northwest Territories. So the information's available and it's factored into revenues, but, again, the funding that is given to those cases is meant to be directed to maintain scheduled services in our respective territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member.

Thanks, Madam Chair, I appreciate that. I have one other area that I want to turn to, and it's one of my favorites - the Northwest Territories wage top-up program. So there's money in here. It looks like it's being offset by the Government of Canada. When is this program going to run out in the Northwest Territories, and what happens afterwards? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So again-- so the wage top-up program, you might recall, was originally when some essential workers, typically in the southern jurisdictions, were not necessarily returning to work and not making themselves available at their workplaces because of the risks associated at the time of COVID-19 and the option was to go on to the various relief programs. So this was an opportunity to try to encourage people to go back into those workplaces that were highly needed. Our wages, being what they are in the Northwest Territories, was such that-- and the fact that a lot of essential workers are government employees, we were able to top up everybody and bring everyone up to an $18 an hour rate. And, again, our wages being what they were, that money was simply not getting spent such that we continued to have funds available, and we have the ability-- Canada has allowed the Northwest Territories to be flexible in the application of the program. Right now, we are going to let the program go until August 31st, 2021, and if there's any additional funds required, we would be funding it from within the Department of Finance. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Member.

MR. O'REILLY; Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I appreciate that, so August 31st. The problem is, of course, some people are going to see their wages go down the very next day, September1st, to our minimum wage which, if I remember, is $15.10 -- 25 cents. Anyways, they're going to see a substantial drop in their wages. I've identified this as a problem. We don't seem to have a high enough minimum wage here. We talked about guaranteed basic income but there doesn't seem to be a lot of appetite on the other side for this. So I just think this is unfair for workers when this program runs out, and we need to figure out a way to assist them and do something better. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister, do you have anything to add. Any further questions, comments? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. How much have we given Canadian North to date? And including this top up here. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Madam Chair, to date Canada North has received total contributions of $21 million and -- $21,372,000.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know Nunavut's number's somewhere about $40 million as well and just recently in the legislature, a couple of the MLAs said it was a missed opportunity not to take an equity stake given the amount of money they'd actually given the Air North by then. I know the Canadian government took six percent equity stake in Air Canada with part of their bailout. At any point, were there any conversations or did we consider taking an equity stake in Canadian North?

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. No such conversations were had with me. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Member.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I guess, you know, the first couple bailouts, I get, when their main concern is insolvency and keeping these essential routes open. But we're getting to the point where the government is clearing propping up these airlines, and I think some larger conversations have to happen about whether we're just going to keep pouring money into them without getting a seat at the shareholder table. And that was very much the Minister of Finance federally's point in taking six percent of Air Canada as part of their bailout, to make sure that they're at the shareholder table and they have an input on continued operations and they get access to things such as when Air Canada, you know, pays all of its executives $10 million in bonuses. And I want to make sure that we have similar access and the department's doing its job with Canadian North. But I've heard the Minister here that there's a holdback and we will be diligent.

I guess my other area is with the Yukon travel bubble now emerging, Canadian North and Air North, the Yukon's airline code share route, Yellowknife to Whitehorse, has there been any talks in giving them this further millions of dollars to reinstate that route from Yellowknife to Whitehorse?

Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I know it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the vast bulk of the airline funding is coming from the federal government and I'm not sure they are prepared to fund us to take an equity stake in our local airline. And, again, the conversation hasn't been had, Madam Chair, to be quite clear.

As far as adding route, the funding that is being made available is to support the existing and really the essential services routes in terms of moving supplies and moving people within the territory and south. Right now, this is our only route to the south so all supplies, any travel, particularly medical travel, is reliant on this. A new route would certainly, you know-- I don't know what kind of analysis Canadian North would need to do to determine the costs of adding that new route. And I anticipate that for them to do that may well change the financial information that they are providing to us, which would then change the determination of what they would be entitled to under the approach we've taken with the entirety of the system. So as much as anyone else, I would love to get on an airline and go just about anywhere right now, I'm sure some conversations can be had about what that would look like and whether it would be possible but it certainly hasn't happened to date because to date, it was a matter of getting the funding to flow to maintain the routes that we have. You know, and-- I think it's easy to commit them to say that we can try and look into that between now and hopefully there's a -- I think there should be a fourth round of funding. We'll see how that unfolds with the federal government. And if that's the case, then before we get there, let's, you know, we can at least look into it at that point and see what that particular might be.