Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It should actually be 19, because I only got to use 30 seconds of my first 10 minutes. However, I would like to thank the Chair for his recognition.
Mr. Chairman, I just have a question on this hotel tax. If the intent of the Minister was to run us up the flagpole, so to speak, and see who saluted, at least at this Assembly, he has definitely gotten some reaction.
I have not heard anything in my community really strongly about this either way. I do have a question though, just to my very rudimentary math on the financial implications. I recognize the Minister said this was a draft. In my questions to the Minister yesterday, I asked about when you want to look at the true cost of government, in terms of the amount of money that they spend on accommodations. It has to be more than just employees. There are health boards, school boards, other agencies, NGOs, communities that get their funding entirely from the government, not to mention all the contractors and consultants that will just add that cost into their bill to the government.
So my question to the Minister is, as they fine tune this, if these are in fact just the first cut rudimentary figures, which it appears they are, will they be sharpening their pencils in terms of their calculations?
In terms of the $1,250,000, because with that big piece of the equation missing, it will affect the bottom line in terms of potential revenues. Thank you.