Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. Koe on February 24, 1995 regarding changes in WCB coverage for hunters and trappers.

Section 10 of the Workers' Compensation Act allows for a person who is a resident of the NWT, who holds a general hunting licence, and is an independent operator principally engaged in hunting, fishing or trapping for a livelihood, to be covered to their year's maximum insurable remuneration, YMIR, of $24,000. There is no cost for this coverage.

If a hunter/trapper is not covered under section 10 of the Workers' Compensation Act, or if he/she wishes to insure himself/herself in an amount greater than the $24,000, the coverage can be obtained at a rate of $2.50 per hundred dollars. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Speaker, I have been away from the Assembly and I am not sure whether I have been neglecting Mr. Ben MacDonald, but he is here and I am here today. He is from the Union of Northern Workers. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Whitford. Mr. Whitford, do you have a question?

He is introduced now.

Would you like to go back?

---Laughter

The Member for Yellowknife South is asking unanimous consent to go back to item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Mr. Whitford.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I got several calls from constituents this morning about last night's budget, Mr. Speaker. I was asked to raise this question: since in fiscal year 1996-97 we're expected to be cut by about $58 million by the federal government, and since we've heard lots of statements right across the country -- Mr. Savage is angry about the $250 million cut they're going to get; Mr. Rae is angry about the more than $3 billion cut that Ontario is going to get -- and since we're saying that we're not going to fight about it, we're not going to rail like everybody else -- and we took a hit like everybody else -- I would like to ask the Minister of Finance how can our constituents judge whether we are being treated fairly by this cut in comparison to everybody else across the country since we had an immediate reaction yesterday from every jurisdiction to this budget and we haven't had an official reaction from the Northwest Territories as to whether we like this or not?

Minister of Finance, Mr. Pollard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, individual residents of the Northwest Territories, along with individual residents in Canada, are going to have to judge for themselves the fairness of Mr. Martin's budget.

To reassure people why am I not railing against what Mr. Martin has done, I believe that railing against what he has done would be non-productive. I would rather work with the federal government to achieve the ends that they want to meet than I would in becoming an adversary of theirs and fighting with them.

At 3:00 this afternoon, I will be discussing this issue with Ethel Blondin-Andrew and we will be requesting that, in the not-too-distant future, we'll be meeting with Mr. Martin, the Premier and myself, to discuss how these impacts on the Northwest Territories are going to occur and just what the full impact will be and how we're going to address those changes in our lives that are going to take place. So I would rather work with them than against them, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's understandable that, since we seem to not have a reaction, the public would be interested in knowing what the full impact on us will really be.

I understand that we are in a different position than the provinces. We are in a weaker position, I suppose, because we're not a province. I would like to ask the Minister, since we have a formula funding agreement, what aspects of this formula funding agreement need to be examined in creating a new formula for us? In other words, if our cut is going to be $58 million, what is it that we need to change in the formula funding agreement that helps us to absorb that kind of a reduction?

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, what needs to happen is there needs to be a recognition that the Northwest Territories can be of great advantage to Canada if we manage the assets and if we manage the resources in the Northwest Territories well. If they are taken out of the ground or if they're taken off the land and put into production, not only will we gain but so will Canada. So what we need to do is to convince Mr. Martin to have a formula funding agreement that recognizes that if we do well, then Canada does well. Our present one is somewhat restrictive and doesn't allow us to do that, so that's the argument that I will be making to him, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although this federal budget only proposes to raise taxes very selectively on a very narrow range of issues, what would be the impact of these taxes on northerners and on our northern economy?

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, the gasoline tax increased by 1.5 cents a litre. That's going to have an impact on people in the Northwest Territories. It will maybe have an impact on us too because it may cause us to gain some more revenues.

With regard to the other taxes, the increase in corporate income tax is going to affect companies in the Northwest Territories.

Of much greater concern is when we find out more details; they talked about mining and resource revenues, yesterday. We don't know what the impact of that is going to be. Those are the kinds of areas that I'm concerned about right now. I know there are other people in Canada who are concerned about frightening away large corporations from Canada, and I guess we must be equally vigilant.

You know yourself, Mr. Speaker, that this year we did not choose to raise corporate income taxes because we wanted to be competitive. So I think Canada has to be competitive and the Northwest Territories as well. So it may have some downstream effects that we don't know about yet, Mr. Speaker, but it's something that we're monitoring. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you. Since we are funded quite differently from the provinces, I would like to ask the Minister of Finance; in the areas of health and education where we, at one time, used to have established program funding, how will this new transfer system of health and social services affect us or does the formula funding agreement we have right now cover all that anyway and we need not worry about what's happening in the provinces?

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Nerysoo is going to have his work cut out for him over the next few months, as he deals with the federal government in this particular area. With regard to the impact upon us fiscally, we do not believe that there will be a fiscal impact to us because of the formula financing agreement that we have seen laid down before us by the federal government. The outlines are there and the basics are there, and under the present conditions, it would not have an effect on us. But I stand to be corrected as we get further into the negotiations, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.