Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Like other Members, I have only recently begun to understand what these particular bills will be doing to the citizens of the Northwest Territories. When I first heard about this I thought of it as somewhat ridiculous as far as the administrative costs to recover funds which are going south, and the amount of money that will be used to administer the program. Since then, I have begun to understand more of what the intent of these two bills are.

At this point, I am stuck between voting for and against these two bills. On the one hand, for a majority of the people who will be affected by this in my constituency we have raised such areas as rent by as much as 15 per cent. That is what I hear from the Minister of Personnel. The inflation rate in which we survive at this point is about 1.8 which basically covers the salary increases that employees in my constituency will be affected by, which works out to a 15 per cent increase. We are talking about a one per cent increase to their payroll. In my mind, that is a 16 per cent hike for employees who are the moderate range income.

I would have also liked the benefit, pleasure or privilege of consulting people in my constituency. I have only learned, over the past two weeks, what the intent of these bills are. I still have difficulty. Of what I can understand of this, it does not touch people who are self-employed. People who are self-employed in my constituency are quite well-to-do people. Professionals are quite well-to-do. People who have formed corporations are very well-to-do. From what I can understand, they are not going to be touched in any way shape or form by these two bills. Yet, I have people who I always have sympathy for, the people who are in the low income bracket, people who are on social assistance, they are going to benefit. How much of a benefit they going to receive is another factor that I have to consider.

In speaking with the Minister of Finance, the original intent, as far as I can understand, was that we were trying to catch the people who are fly-in fly-out workers in the territories. The figure which he gave me roughly was 27 per cent. In listening to the chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance he is indicating 15 to 20 per cent. How much of this revenue is actually coming in from people who fly-in and fly-out? I do not know the answer to that. When we look at the attachment to what we have received from the Standing Committee on Finance, I have looked at that and studied it, what I can see is that in a time when we, as a government, are trying to employ as many aboriginal people as we possibly can, the people who are aboriginal and will likely fall into these brackets will likely get hit the hardest. I think that is true for my constituency.

When we looked at the rent increases, I took a look at who was going to be affected the most, and when we looked at this, it appeared that the people who are aboriginal employees, live in a government house, have an income which is average are likely going to be hit the most. When we voted on the rent increases, that is who I was thinking of, the aboriginal employees who we, as this government, have been encouraging for a long time and continue to do so.

I can understand where the government is coming from by introducing the payroll tax as well as the Income Tax Act, which is to soften the burden on the people who are less fortunate. At a time of financial constraints the government has the responsibility to keep the bottom line positive. I can understand that. I can also see people who are employed by various agencies in the Northwest Territories trying to try to get their bottom line positive with the banks and with the mortgage groups. At this point, I really do not know how to vote. These last few years have been a time of recession in Canada, all over the world for that matter. It appears we are getting past this recession. Just at that point, we are introducing a one per cent tax on people who are likely better off than most and handing it to the less fortunate. That principle I like. I think it is a very good principle. Yet, I do not want to see the affect of any more increases on people who are trying to benefit my people. That is who is in my constituency, government employees and those who are on social assistance. For me, it is very difficult to say, without having consulted with the people in my constituency to say yes or no. At this point I would like to say I will be abstaining. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.