Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm aware that I cannot speak for the committee and I understand that our committee Members would like to see changes to regulations brought to them first. What I'm saying is that my experience has been that when a Minister says he wants to consult and review, that is just an excuse for inaction.

I'm telling you that allowing for more than two weeks' stay in shoulder seasons, between May and June when there is still snow on the ground or in August to September when all the kids are back in school, is no good to us. What I'm interested in knowing is what is his intention with regard to this policy or is he just using the age-old formula that every other Minister uses, which is that they would just study and review issues to death? I want to know his intentions. Thank you.

The Minister of RWED, Mr. Bell.

Thank you. Clearly, my intentions wouldn't be honourable if I was going to sit here and tell you that the shoulder season was mid-winter, but that's not what I'm going to do. I'm going to go back to the department, ask them to develop some regulations that would incorporate the shoulder season in the spring and fall when people are still camping at the park. But we've got to recognize that in the middle of summer, until we have the capacity to handle all the RV traffic that we see locally, there's going to have to be some compromise. I think the constituents that I spoke to in the last Assembly understood the rationale, but were looking for a more workable solution, something that was more accommodating and flexible. Nobody I spoke with thought that it made sense to clog up those sites with locals and ensure that tourists had nowhere to camp when they arrived.

So I certainly will commit to the Member that we're working internally to develop some regulations that make sense. I'm aware of the concerns. I have the same concerns as the Member and we're going to work to alleviate those. I will come back to committee with a proposal and hope to get support from committee and then we'll move forward quickly. Thank you.

Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I took a vested interest in listening to the Finance Minister's budget process update and feel that, with the number of problems he encounters in the revenue and expenditure section, I've made a few comments on how we should encourage the government to introduce tax exemptions to improve upon that kind of development for our residents of the Northwest Territories. So my question to the Minister is whether he is prepared to introduce new tax exemption mechanisms and, if so, how does he intend to implement this new initiative? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister responsible for FMBS, Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated, the government is going to have to look at the whole expenditure side, as well as the revenue side, to try to come up with a balance of how much debt we're going to carry and go forward from there. Mr. Speaker, there are some options that are out there that we can look at. Mr. Speaker, our problem right now is that we don't have enough revenues to deal with our fiscal situation. So we're going to have to look at how we can come up with revenues, and if Mr. Allen has some suggestions for areas that we can look at that would create some more revenues then we would gladly take that into consideration.

In reference to Bill C-48 that was dealt with by the federal government and responds to concerns raised by the industry in the resource sector. They have undertaken some initiatives and I'm not very familiar with that area, but we'd have to look at that. My immediate concern in preparing for our next step in bringing main estimates forward for this Assembly is to look at the level of expenditures versus our revenue side. As I stated in my Minister's statement, in fact we do have a problem and the gap is widening between the revenues we have and the expenditures.

So right now we haven't looked at any specific exemptions. We have looked at a number of other areas, but not any exemptions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I acknowledge the fact that we had a briefing on the statistics of the Northwest Territories and some of the costs that are related to that. It leaves no doubt that our communities, Mr. Speaker, are in a sad state of economic and social development today. Again, I would ask the Minister of Finance if he is willing and able to formulate tax policy that would stimulate that systemic change to the economic and social development of this territory. Thank you.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Definitely, I would be interested in looking at our tax policies and see how they could spur some further economic development, for example, or how they could impact on social wellbeing of residents of the Northwest Territories. But we must also understand that there's a cost to doing some of these things and because our revenue base isn't a very large one, those have an immediate impact on other programs and services. I'm willing to look at tax solutions out there that could lessen the impact to the residents of the Northwest Territories, but at the same time we must balance that off with what level of expenditures we're willing to make in other program areas. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be tabling a couple of documents later this afternoon. I would make reference to the fact that we have the ability to introduce some tax exemptions that would help us facilitate social and economic growth in the Northwest Territories. Again, I would ask the Minister if he would elaborate for the benefit of the people of the Northwest Territories if he's willing to adopt new tax initiatives that would be part of the strategy to improve operational efficiencies in economies throughout the North? Thank you.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, I would be glad to sit down and look at the information provided. We are, as government, looking at a whole number of options to enhance our budget or look at creating and stimulating some development in the Northwest Territories, provided that we do not lose from our revenue base and impact other programs and services that we deliver as a government. Thank you.

Final supplementary. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With all due respect, I know the difficulty that the Finance Minister is faced with, considering our fiscal situation. But would he now assist in facilitating a number of tax reform meetings specific to Inuvik and perhaps if we could coordinate jointly a tax reform forum in Inuvik to get some further ideas? Thank you.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would gladly meet with Members of this House in their communities or in committees to discuss options that are available to us as government that could enhance the programs and services we have available or lessen the impact of the cost of living in the Northwest Territories. At the same time, we must look at the whole picture as a government and see what balance we can strike. I would gladly meet with the Member and discuss the initiatives he's discussed and see how we can move those along. Thank you.

Item 6, oral questions. The Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland. I know everybody has been hearing a little bit more back room grumblings about the growing inequities in the employment within the mining industry of aboriginals and northerners; that the mining industry is reaching a point where they're just barely meeting their quota for northern employment. With the growing number of mines that are going to be opening in the future, I think this gap is going to keep growing. My question, Mr. Speaker, is that I've been hearing some concerns from some employees of these mining industries that some non-resident employees are taking advantage of our northern taxation policies. I know changes in these policies are also being hindered by the Government of Canada's taxation harmonization policy. That's why we're having a hard time recovering more dollars from non-resident employees and making it more fair and equitable for our northerners.

The issue I want to raise with the Minister is that I know that a lot of the non-resident employees of these mining companies are starting to take up residence just north of the NWT border in areas like Hay River, Enterprise and Fort Smith. That makes them qualify for these northern allowance benefits. Every two weeks there's a mass exodus going south after the shift changes. People are just taking addresses and filling them out on their application forms to the mines that are situated in these communities, which qualifies them for the northern benefit allowances.

I just want to ask the Minister what measures he is going to make to ensure that the northern allowance benefits are taken advantage of by northerners only, and not by southern employees who do not reside in the NWT on a full-time basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank the Member for that question. It's an area that has been a bit of an issue through a number of Assemblies from the day the payroll tax was put in place. Many northern businesses felt that it was an added cost to them. The government itself wanted to ensure that we tried to encourage employees who were working from other jurisdictions to live in the Northwest Territories so we could benefit in a number of ways by them taking up residence in the Northwest Territories, and also to encourage businesses to hire northern residents and put them into gainful employment.

There are things that we have done. It's admittedly in an area that has some issues. We have looked at a number of issues across the board around the payroll tax and how we're affected by harmonization of tax policies across the country, but it is an area that we see as one of the avenues to try to...If we can't have employees working at the mines living in the Northwest Territories, then we will keep this tax in place and look at enhancing it, possibly, as one of the ways to try to bring some money back to the North that we're not getting through royalties, for example, or other areas. There are a number of options, but in the area itself of payroll tax, it has its problems. It's something we need to continue to work out, but it is based on residency in the Northwest Territories. So if someone works for a mine or a company in the Northwest Territories and does take up residence in the Northwest Territories, they would qualify for that rebate, for the credit, depending on the income that they make. So if they've moved to the North and taken up residence here, that benefits us in a number of ways. One, it increases our grant from Canada because we have a higher population but, as well, most of the money would stay in the North. If the Member is referring to the fact that people are taking up an address but not really living at it, that's something we need to follow up on and get more detail on. If the Member has some specific information he'd like to meet with me on, I'll gladly meet with him. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Villeneuve.