Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister of Finance. I think the biggest thing I keep thinking about is the overall deficit of this government. And looking back at the budget books, we're about $1.6 billion and one of the things we don't talk about is balancing the overall budget. So the question to the Minister is prioritizing balancing the budgets of this new government, can you tell me how would you approach on that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ensuring that there is a budget that is compliant with the Fiscal Responsibility Policy has always been an important feature for myself, and I expect will continue to be so under this administration. And I do reference the Fiscal Responsibility Policy because that's the document that helps guide our assurance that we're providing the budget that is sustainable.

As far as balancing the budget, having debt in and of itself for a government of our size, Mr. Speaker, is not the challenge. The challenge, though, is ensuring that in our expenditures that we don't continuously overspend as compared to our revenues, and that certainly is something that, the Member's quite right, looking back over a decade, that number does keep going up faster than our revenues keep going up. So certainly going forward now, we've laid -- we certainly have a lot more information and data available to us on how we can get those numbers closer, how we can get those lines together, and that can certainly be a focus for this Assembly should we choose to take that path. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister of Finance. Thank you for your response. I just keep thinking that when you release those documents, I'm looking forward to see it.

Balancing the budget means cuts. Will these cuts be services and investment to the Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh riding? Because we get less than 2.5 percent over the overall budget. I just want to know if that's going to be happening. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just firstly for the Members, communities, and residents of that riding and all ridings, the budget isn't parsed out by one community at a time. A large amount of our budget is actually spent on services, programs, so for example health care services, that don't necessarily line up according to our riding line. So I certainly don't want any residents feeling like they don't get a fair shake out of the government.

With respect to cuts, Mr. Speaker, that would certainly always be the last -- and cuts to programs and services has to be the last thing that we look at. But there's a lot that we can do to improve our efficiency, to avoid redundancy, and significant work has been done already, and we laid ourselves a path and it's our opportunity to take it, with government renewal and with the data that's been gathered by health sustainability and can we actually look at spending our money better and more wisely now that we have that data available to us so that we can, indeed, bring ourselves to a better fiscal situation without any cuts. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Final supplementary.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the finance Minister. Well, the biggest thing that I'm a little worried about is austerity, and I brought this up in the last Assembly. And when the Minister of the day had mentioned that this issue would be brought to the next Assembly to look at, so here we are today. So I'm just want to raise this because it's a concern. You know, will --

Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, question, please.

Yeah. The question is would these measures to balance the budget be through layoffs or funding cuts? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I'm also the Minister responsible for the public service and the work that we do as a government can't happen without that public service. So that is -- I hope not a rumor that's out amongst the public service that that's where we're going to be starting to find a way for better and more responsible government. Being a responsible government, having responsible fiscal policies, does not necessarily require us to go out and get rid of those people who deliver our programs and services. It does mean looking at how we do things, looks at the duplication of services, at government renewal, are there areas where we can be more efficient, how can we operate differently and better, and how can we look internally to fund so that we're not continually adding new positions, adding more when we're not already managing the house that we're in. So I appreciate the line of questioning. I don't -- and I share the concern, but I certainly want to emphasize to the public servants out there that this doesn't need to happen without them at the forefront telling us, in fact, how we can do better. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These questions going to the Minister of housing. In my statement, I referred to the rent and how it's not working for the tenants of the Northwest Territories in the housing association. Will the Minister look at restructuring the current rent scale?

Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Minister for Housing NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of the question of looking at the rental scale, Housing NWT is currently reviewing the rental scale as an action item for the strategic renewal exercise conducted in the 19th Assembly. So it is an action item.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the select few who have full-time employment and keep up to date with their rents, will the department look at homeownership options for these tenants? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The department can work with the tenants if they're interested in homeownership options. We can set up meetings with the individual tenants if they do have that interest for that opportunity.

Thank you. Ministers, please direct your comments to me and say -- start with Mr. Speaker as well. Thank you.

Final question, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. There are two programs available. The homeownership initiative and the home purchase program. Are these programs still in existence? Because I have two constituents who are -- who have full-time employment and have been trying to get some answers on these programs but they're not getting any concrete answers. I am just wondering are these programs still in existence? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If they are interested in the homeownership program, they can contact Housing NWT district office. The program is still in existence and operating. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Mackenzie Delta.

Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one day this is going to be all of us in here, okay? So right now the Housing NWT repair programs require seniors to contribute 10 percent of repair costs if they earn $59,000 or more. Would the Minister commit to reviewing the income threshold for the repair program? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of housing NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm afraid I didn't understand the question for Housing NWT, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Member from Monfwi, can you rephrase your question, please.

What I said is right now what the housing is doing is that Housing NWT repairs program requires seniors to contribute 10 percent of repair costs, which is $1,000, if they are making $59,000 or more. So what I'm telling the Minister is that would the Minister commit to reviewing the income threshold for the repair program?