Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, perhaps I could respond to Ms. Lee and Mr. Bell simultaneously.
With regard to comments by the Member, Ms. Lee, the department does appreciate the support she indicated for the proposal. We wish to state though that this support or this initiative is really not just the brainchild of the department. This is the result of many consultations with stakeholders, including the comments by the past committee members as to the declining capital investments of this government into highways. It is simply because we did not have the revenue to do it. So this proposal here is really the result of many people being involved in what exactly we can do to raise revenue on a short-term basis and reinvest the revenue back into where it comes from. This initiative was put through to other Cabinet Members and, as you know, did receive the support of Cabinet before it appears here in our budget. However, I would like to point out that it is not just the department's initiative. Credit goes to everyone for this idea.
There is no doubt that there are going to be some negative aspects to it. People have to pay some price for benefits of an improved highway system. I suppose that you could really look at it as that you either pay the pain of driving on rough highways, or you pay the pain of paying a few cents more per kilometre for improving your highway. So whether it is done through a toll or it is done some other way, you still have to have some way of getting the money into the department so that we can do the job.
We took into consideration the possibilities of clawbacks from the federal government if we increased taxes in any way. So we had to come up with something like this, where it was not subject to clawback. I do not disagree with the Member, Mr. Bell, that in the future, this may be subject to clawback, but for the time being, it is not. It is something that the Minister of Finance is well aware of.
The cost of the toll to local residents of Yellowknife, we were thinking of that as well. We took the concern to the Minister and to Cabinet and it is really the aspect of the discussions on the toll charge and, in particular, a tax credit issue or the clawback issue is really a subject for the Minister of Finance. It should be addressed to the Minister of Finance rather than myself.
I can speak towards the actual plan for what we expect, and maybe the end product, as far as what the toll charge would be. Whether it is five cents per tonne per kilometre or whatever, that is something that we have prepared for and we will be in a position to present to the standing committee in May for future discussions.
We have tried to take a proactive approach to this idea of improving our highway systems. As the Members well know, with our limited budgets in the past and our declining capital funding that the department has been receiving, there is just no way we could even keep up with existing impacts on our highway system. So it is really a kind of boost even to the morale of the department. We feel that if this proposal goes forward, we have the ability to respond to people's concerns. In particular, concerns expressed by the standing committee members in this House. I think that I have pretty well covered the comments that I have heard from the two Members up to now, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.