Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, Mr. Speaker, it is important to try to communicate these through officials and it does not lend itself well to discussion between people who are not experts in this field. As I have said, the core duties of the chief of staff in my view are those taken on by executive assistants.

Executive assistants do not have job descriptions. They are at pleasure but like the principle secretary, the chief of staff that we have created, which is an enhanced executive assistant position, is operating at a senior management level. The salary that we assign to this and allow for this reflects that. It is to ensure that person is qualified and has the dignity of being able to deal with deputy ministers, chief of staff across this country to be able to attract the type of person we need for this job.

It is a tough job. It is being done very well at this time by the person who fills it. We have said that it came out of the executive assistant position. The duties assigned to it are the core duties that are performed by executive assistant positions. Keep in mind that these are not laid out in a job description. We have enhanced that by including additional duties. That plus the political requirements of the job requires that we pay it a level that is considered a senior management level.

This is where we are. There is a possibility that the Member might be able to see that, but this is a good thing that we have done. He should be able to applaud it very shortly once he gets it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not know if the Premier was telling me I need to go back to school to try to understand what they put out here. Mr. Speaker, in Hansard of October 31st, page 635, "We also created a chief of staff position." He goes on to say:

"The chief of staff would be allowed to call meetings of all executive assistants, including secretaries, and to ensure the overall coordination of Cabinet."

Mr. Speaker, the Premier has now stated that this position can deal with deputy ministers, so it would seem that it is in fact turning into more than the executive assistant position. As far as I know, and I am sure the Premier knows, as he has been a Cabinet Minister his entire time as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, there are nine pages of duties and responsibilities for an executive assistant. If we are not ducking here, I do not know what it is.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to know again, has there been a change in direction in this? I know he will refer to the legislative proposal. I look forward to that opportunity to debate that one as well. Has there been a change in direction here from what he stated on the record that it was an executive assistant position? Now the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board says it is in the same category as a deputy minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. I just caution Members to shorten their preambles in supplementary questions. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been no change. We are happy with the changes and enhancements that we made. As the Premier, I am very happy with the changes I made to my office. I think as a cost-saving measure, the committee that reviews that the Executive department, I thought applauded that last year, but I could be wrong. They asked specifically not to see any additional cost incurred by my office.

It is true that the chief of staff does more than just provide executive assistant position duties, but it is also true in the 12 years that I was a Minister in the previous government, I have seen executive assistants do a wide range of duties, a wide range of varying types of workloads. I am not going to say that some did nothing, but some of them did a tremendous, tremendous amount of work. They are all different. Each Minister asked their executive assistants to do varying duties and they are varied. That is why there is no job description.

In this case, the chief of staff is a new job. It is being done by a person who is my executive assistant. We have retitled it to reflect that it is going to operate at a senior management level, but it still does all the executive assistant position duties that I was previously able to obtain from my executive assistant. So it is an executive assistant position. It is a chief of staff position. It does executive assistant duties. It does chief of staff duties. It is a pleasure appointment and it is paid as reflected as a senior management level positions. The sooner we get on to dealing with it in a legislative proposal, the better for everyone to clear up the ambiguities and the difficulties we are having with this issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier is always asking for applause. I give him applause. Now let us get on to some real answers here. Mr. Speaker, if the chief of staff position is an executive assistant with enhanced duties, would the chief of staff then be given authority to talk to the public and make public statements about the future direction of the Government of the Northwest Territories, in particular to heading toward party politics? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Mr. Speaker, the individual has opinions that perhaps are shared with the public on occasion. We will ensure that that does not happen again. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley. I have a question on the budget that he delivered last week. It is in regard to tax on income. On page 19 of his budget, he speaks about an establishment of a Minister's Advisory Committee on Personal Income Tax. He says it is composed of residents with experience in the tax area. I would like to know, Mr. Speaker, if these people with experience in the tax area, what does he mean by that? Does that mean tax lawyers and accountants and tax policy analysts or would that include middle income families with children, low income families, seniors, persons with disabilities and every other person who pays taxes in the North? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the tax committee that I am proposing to create as we move to a tax on income is a committee that I expect would have technical expertise, expertise that would be valuable to me in ensuring that we have the best tax structure for the people of the Northwest Territories. I am thinking of a committee that is made up of people with technical professional expertise such as accountants and tax experts. I was not thinking of someone who has experience of tax on the other end of being the taxpayer. It would be more for the technical expertise. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As with other Members in this House, I have been trying to understand what this change in tax structure is. The more I hear it, it is becoming a little bit alarming here. Mr. Speaker, the budget states that the Minister will bring his people together to look at the options and make recommendations. So I have to ask the Minister whether these people are going to be gathered together to raise taxes for the everyday taxpayer? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the proposed committee, as I said earlier, is a committee of experts. When we make the move, if we make the move to switch to tax on income, that is our tax is to be based on income earned rather than as a percentage of federal tax, it opens up the opportunity for us as a government to restructure our taxes in the way that best suits Northerners. I see the committee as providing me with that kind of technical expertise on how we can best ensure that our tax system is fair and yet also achieves our purposes in terms of revenues.

It is not there to raise revenue or anything like that. It is simply to give me professional expertise, advice, on what our new tax structure may look like if we go over to this system. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the ambiguity in the Minister's answer makes it difficult for me to understand exactly what the problem is he is trying to fix. Mr. Speaker, I have friends who have chosen to stay in the North because they find the North to be the area with the lowest personal income tax and we also know that we have had windfalls in the budget last year because corporate tax is the lowest. So I do not understand what the problem is that the Minister is trying to fix with this committee and these experts and everything else that he is doing. He is being very ambiguous. Could he be more clear, please?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. I am not sure I heard a question there. Could the Minister be more clear. More clear on what? Could you be more specific, please? Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question I thought was very clear. My question is what is the Minister trying to fix? What is the Minister trying to fix?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. I have the question. What is the Minister trying to fix? Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I am trying to see if there is a way of fixing our tax system. Our tax system right now is based as a percentage of federal tax. We have very little flexibility to set our own categories, to set our own tax credit systems and so on. I think there are possibly people in different wage categories in the North who are having a hard time to make ends meet. I think this is an opportunity for us to set new levels, new categories of taxpayers, new systems of tax credit. There are all sorts of options that are open to us as we go towards having our own tax on income system not tied to the federal system. So there's a whole host of things. I have not done up a terms of reference for the committee yet and I would be very happy to share that with all the Members when we do it and get feedback from you and give you more clarity on what I am doing.

This, in my view, provides us with an excellent opportunity to devise a made-in-the-North tax system and provide benefits to people at all levels that are appropriate. So, broadly speaking, that is it. I will provide a terms of reference for all of the Members to have a look at. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.