Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a question on this new initiative. I guess I concur with the Finance Minister that the half a percentage point increase of a person grossing more than $80,000 a year is not really a big chunk of money that we're talking about. Out of $80,000 wages, $7.50 is not a heck of a lot of money, but I think it's just the principle that people tend to look at more than what are the actual dollar amounts that they'll be paying out.
I just wanted to ask the Minister of the 4,600 taxpayers in the NWT that are going to be affected by these changes, probably a large number of those income tax payers are GNWT employees. As Mr. Ramsay was referring to, that this tax increase is basically just going to raise the cost of living for these income tax payers in the NWT. I'm just wondering if that's just going to provide the GNWT employees with some ammunition when it comes time to negotiate their new public service agreements in the upcoming year. Will this $1 million that we get out of these changes be offset by I'm sure the changes in the public servants' collective agreement, and in the next round of negotiations will equate to much more than that insofar as getting income increases with GNWT employees? I'm just wondering if that had been considered over the long term, and what effect that would have. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.