Oh, it's Thursday. Oh, my gosh, I get another question. Okay. Sorry about that. So with respect, then, going back to the idea -- and I have to commend the Hay River office for being on top of this -- going back to the idea of actually going down to Okotoks and looking at this, I mean, it doesn't cost a lot of money to go look. I didn't get a firm answer. Before we embark on the next round of new housing units and before the design is complete and the plans are in place, would the Minister agree that we will investigate all possibilities, particularly this one that's come to my attention, before we start building more houses? I think it's 100 and some million dollars that we have for houses. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will commit to the Member that I will sit down with her and look at an arrangement to look at these units in Okotoks and see exactly how we can implement some of that technology in the North. So I'm committed to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask my questions on high cost of living and high cost of doing business to the Minister of Finance. Mr. Speaker, it's been stated here many times today that the government subsidizes $128 million worth to our people. But if that's not reducing the cost of things for people, obviously it's not. You go to Tuktoyaktuk or Aklavik, you have to spend many dollars to get a loaf of bread. Prices are going up and up in Yellowknife and one of the things that I've been talking about is cost of doing business.

Mr. Speaker, one of the suggestions posed here is that we should ask the federal government for reduction in cost of living exemption in income tax. I do understand that there are costs to that. Could the Minister of Finance tell this House about, because our tax system is linked to the federal government that if the reduction does go ahead there will be less money coming into territorial coffers, as well as the federal government. Could the Minister just explain that, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to get into the actual detail of our arrangements with the federal government and tax sharing arrangements would take up a significant amount of time. The Member is correct, though. There is a link to the way our tax is calculated between just ourselves and the federal government. For example, for every $1,000

increase in the northern residents' deduction, that would impact us directly by about $1 million. So that would offset, we would lose that much revenue for that kind of a change. As well, the arrangement we have with the federal government, we've had to do some calculations in that area and, again, because we're linked together, there would be another spin-off to that that would not be on the positive side for ourselves. But the immediate impact we look at is approximately for $1,000 of increase in that deduction amount, would impact us by negative $1 million. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess we should be mindful as legislators that whether it's a tax and income tax reduction or GST or cost of living, I mean, there's benefit to getting more money into people's pockets, but also we have to look into the cost-benefit analysis of the reduced income to government and that's always a big issue here.

Mr. Speaker, I think one way we could deal with the cost of reduction is to help small businesses reduce the cost of living. The Minister of Finance indicated that he is working on a package to deal with that, but he didn't give a commitment as to when we should be expecting to see that. I would like to know if he could give a more specific date on that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have done some work with the Department of ITI in the area of support to small businesses. It's early in the process of trying to see if there are ways where we can look at the small business tax rate as well as some of the other support we have in place, and how we can offset one to the other to help create or keep small businesses being competitive here in the Northwest Territories. I don't have an actual timeline laid out, if it would be six months from now that we'd be able to come back with a package. We'll have to look at the impacts of some of these other changes, as well, that we've announced. Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask the Minister to put more discipline on this exercise. Mr. Speaker, we have been talking about cost of living for residents for many years now, throughout the time of this Assembly. One of the ways to reduce cost of living for people is to reduce the cost of doing business for small businesses. When it costs more to get a cup of coffee, get a hamburger, get a pizza, go out to eat or buy clothing, that all adds up to the cost of living. These taxes for the small businesses here are higher than our neighbours in Alberta or B.C. So why can he not look at a package that would help our small businesses? He's had about three years to deal with that. Could I get him to commit to bringing it to us in the next couple of months? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the small business tax rate can affect business in a number of ways. One is just the general percentage that we would apply. The other is the total amount that would apply for that initial rate before the large corporate tax portion would kick in. So there's a number of ways we can do that. Again, we will continue to do our work and try to have something for Members to look at before or around our spring session. We'll try for that. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've raised this issue a lot this week, but I cannot say, I cannot emphasize enough that the small businesses in Yellowknife are struggling. They've had it with the high cost of fuel, power, to hire people, to keep people, and the paper burden. They could really do with a break here. I would really look forward to seeing a package and have the Minister come within the next two months to review a change, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister give me that? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I just stated earlier, I'll try to have something put together for Members to review by our spring session. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Am I to understand that the Minister is talking about the June session? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.