Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last six months have been trying times for us as legislators. We have struggled since November with the threat of an enormous deficit. At times, it seems that everything we have done has been driven by this dark shadow. With the limited time available to us, we have had to rely on the kind of difficult, painful solutions that have been employed elsewhere in Canada: job cuts; public service wage reductions; cuts and benefits to those in need; and, cuts to needed programs to serve northerners.

We have incorporated all of these into the budget we are reviewing this month. We have at least pushed most of the shadow back. Now, as we wind down the session and as government departments start planning their budgets for next year, it is time we looked at other ways of managing the resources available to us. We have to find solutions which do not hurt northerners. This will take a lot of effort and creativity on the part of all northerners. We have to look at creative ways of attracting financial resources to the North. We have to encourage responsible development in the North, but do so in a way that keeps as much of the money and benefits in the North as possible. For example, if diamond miners live in Yellowknife, rather than flying in and out of the South, more personal income tax will come into our coffers instead of the provinces. We could use our tax rate, the lowest personal income tax rate in the country, as a selling point to potential employees in new mines.

We also have to consider creative ways to keep corporate benefits from new development in the North. Some suggest raising corporate tax rates and others suggest lowering them in the hopes of attracting more corporate income to flow into the North and to generate more of our revenue to pay for the programs we need. We have to work with the federal government to finalize the northern accord and ensure that a reasonable portion of mineral royalties from new mines and existing ones stay in the North.

Since the federal deficit is a driving force behind our deficit, we have to encourage the federal government to be more creative in generating revenue. The Auditor General suggests that every dollar spent on tax auditing generates many more dollars in additional revenues from tax evaders. Some economists suggest using a very small tax on currency transactions to generate revenue and to stabilize global currency markets. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.