Thank you. Item 13, notices of motions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan.

Madam Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, February 25, 1993, I will move the following motion.

Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Amittuq that the following amended terms of reference for the Advisory Committee on Social Housing be adopted:

Purpose

- To provide ongoing advice from elected representatives to the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and the Legislative Assembly on broad territorial social housing issues;

- And to provide a forum for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to share information and consult with elected representatives.

Structure

- three permanent Members from the east;

- three permanent Members from the west;

- chaired by the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation; and,

- two alternate Members, one from the east and one from the west.

Term

- for the duration of the 12th Legislative Assembly.

Mandate

The Advisory committee on Social Housing shall:

a) inquire into such housing matters as may be referred to it by the Legislative Assembly;

b) review major new or revised policies or programs proposed by the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation;

c) review major issues arising from existing policies or programs of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation;

d) review the major housing issues arising from the community consultation undertaken by the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation with members of the public, local housing organizations, community governments and interest groups;

e) provide advice to the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and the Legislative Assembly; and,

f) provide opportunities for all Members to raise concerns related to housing and to have input on housing issues on the review by the advisory committee.

Conduct of Business

1. The Advisory Committee on Social Housing shall conduct its business in a manner approved by the Legislative Assembly;

2. The Advisory Committee on Social Housing shall appoint a chairman, who shall be the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. The chairman shall not vote;

3. The Advisory Committee on Social Housing shall appoint one of its Members to serve as a deputy chairman;

4. A quorum of the Advisory Committee on Social Housing shall consist of four Members, including the chairman;

5. The Legislative Assembly shall provide from its appropriations the necessary funds for the advisory committee to carry out its responsibilities;

6. The advisory committee shall have the power to sit during sessions, adjournments and recesses of the House;

7. Meetings of the Advisory Committee on Social Housing may be called at the discretion of the chairman, or a majority of Members, to deal with matters as required;

8. The advisory committee, as a whole, or individual Members, may undertake such travel as required to carry out the assigned responsibilities of the committee;

9. The Advisory Committee on Social Housing shall make regular reports to the Legislative Assembly, through the deputy chairman; and,

10. The necessary administration support for the Advisory Committee on Social Housing shall be provided jointly by the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and the Legislative Assembly.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Item 13, notices of motion. Item 14, notices of motions for first reading of bills. Item 15, motions. Item 16, first reading of bills. Item 17, second reading of bills. Item 18, consideration in committee of the whole of bills and other matters: Bill 1, Appropriation Act, No. 2, 1994-95; Committee Report 2-12(5), Review of the 1994-95 Main Estimates; Minister's Statement 5-12(5), Session Business; Tabled Document 1-12(5), Towards an NWT Mineral Strategy; Tabled Document 2-12(5), Building and Learning Strategy; Tabled Document 3-12(5), Towards a Strategy to 2010: A Discussion Paper; and, Tabled Document 11-12(5), First Annual Report of the Languages Commissioner of the NWT for the Year 1992-93, with Mr. Ningark in the chair.

Thank you. The committee will now come to order. When we concluded yesterday, the Finance Minister, John Pollard, had just made his introductory remarks and Mr. Antoine, the chairman of the Finance Committee had just concluded his opening report. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Antoine.

That we get into the Department of Finance with Bill 1. We finished the opening remarks and we can get into general comments after a break.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Do we have the concurrence of the committee that we will go into general comments on the Department of Finance after the break?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Department Of Finance

Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

This committee will come back to order. As I mentioned earlier, the chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance concluded his report yesterday, on behalf of the Finance committee. Now we are in general comments. We are reviewing the Finance department. Are there any comments from Members? We are on page 04-7, I believe. Pardon me, 04-5. General comments. Mr. Antoine.

Mr. Chairman, I was just talking to the page. I didn't have my hand up.

General comments. Mr. Gargan.

General Comments

Mr. Chairman, I don't know if this is where we talk not only about finances but also about revenues. My general comment is with regard to the tobacco tax. The Minister has indicated that he wants the level that you pay for tobacco to remain the same in order to collect the extra $2 million in revenues. At the same time, in Monday's News/North newspaper -- I haven't read it -- the revenue from sales of liquor is down. I would like to ask the Minister what he then intends to do in order to maintain that same level of revenue. Does he plan on increasing the booze tax in order to keep that level?

Thank you, Mr. Gargan. As a practice of the committee of the whole, if the Minister wants to bring in the witnesses, it is at your discretion, Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, it is true that the consumption of alcohol is down in the Northwest Territories, which I think is a good thing. I think we all recognize that there may be just a little too much alcohol around. I get lobbied by all kinds of different people with regard to liquor pricing. There is the tourist industry -- the hotels, the restaurants and so on and so forth -- who say that when you increase the price of liquor, beer and wine, it then becomes difficult to attract people to the Northwest Territories. The costs are too high. On the other hand, there are those people in the business of dealing with the effects of over-indulgence in alcohol that claim that having high prices, although it may ultimately reduce our revenues, makes it more difficult to get as much liquor to drink. Therefore, they believe that higher pricing leads to less consumption and less consumption is what is required in the Northwest Territories. On liquor, I am not proposing to do anything at the present time.

Mr. Chairman, with regard to tobacco, it is slightly different in that the reduction in the price of tobacco has not been created by this government. As Mr. Lewis rightly stated, it has been reduced by the federal government reducing their part of the price upon which we base our percentage, and, therefore, our revenues are going down. When the price goes down, as I have said before, we believe that the consumption is going to go up, and therefore, there has been a price reduction in the Northwest Territories in tobacco. There hasn't been any price reduction as far as liquor is concerned. That is why I am proposing to move back into that area and maintain that price the way it was before the federal government reduction. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Gargan.

Mr. Chairman, as for revenues and the collection for the purposes of creating revenues and for the purposes of fairness, if a person in Quebec pays four dollars and eighty-eight cents for a pack of cigarettes and the cost up here is still seven dollars and whatever it is, there is nothing fair about that. If you also look at universal programs, the universal programs are based on fixed income. Just because the price of tobacco increases doesn't mean that people on pension or on social assistance have their assistance or security contributions increased to reflect that increase. It certainly would make it possible for a person that is living on a fixed income in Quebec to have that dollar stretch a long way. I think that when this tobacco tax was first introduced in the north, my concern was for the senior citizens, but they are not getting the break that they should be getting. If the Minister wants to keep the prices the same, then I agree that it should be targeted towards the young people, which I think the Minister has made statements to that effect on numerous occasions. I would hope that, while it is great and noble and very courageous of the Minister to do that, we are doing something for the senior citizens that are still on fixed income. The Minister is well aware of the social programs, the universal social programs that are under assault right now. If you want to maintain the price, I don't mind that, but I would appreciate if somehow we might be able to try to give our senior citizens a break.

Thank you, Mr. Gargan. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Pollard.

I understand what Mr. Gargan is saying, Mr. Chairman, and I will take it under consideration. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Koe.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of questions on the definitive objectives listed on page 04-5. In revenue and asset management, one of the objectives is to develop a database of accounts. It seems that we have had computers for many years and it surprises me that we wouldn't already have a database of our bank accounts and signing authorities. Is this a new program or is this database a new development?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, can I just get clarification of where the Member was

reading from? Thank you.