Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of general comments on the Department of Finance. As the committee reported, and as we discussed in committee, some of the forecasting and the models used, as informed by the Minister that in the area of revenues or corporate taxes, there was an anomaly. Through the federal government, they give us the numbers when it comes to building into our budget and forecasting in the area of corporate taxes, as well as personal income tax.
Our concern, and it is an area that is highlighted in the committee report, is the fact that we seem to be budgeting on that amount in the area of expenditures. We are hopeful we can achieve the corporate tax as identified, but that is yet to be seen.
From all information gathered so far, we will not have that kind of banner year again for a while, unless somebody else chooses to file their corporate taxes in the Northwest Territories.
The unfortunate thing is at this present time, we are no longer the lowest jurisdiction when it comes to corporate tax rates. I believe Ontario and Alberta are working, if they have not already, to lower their corporate taxes. So we are not far out, I guess, but we will not be as competitive as we were in the previous year.
In the area of revenues again, and with all this increased work that is happening, it would be nice to know if we expect to get more in the area of income taxes and how we will deal...for example, a concern that has been in the Northwest Territories for quite some time, the fly-in/fly-out staff that has been hired for some of the larger companies operating in the Northwest Territories, and if there is going to be any work done to try to capture that market.
I know the payroll tax was identified to try to do that, and there was some discussion of our ability to monitor that and increase or make sure we are getting the revenue we should be getting as a government with that tax being in place. With that, I will save further comments for detail. Thank you.