Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier and relate to the issue of cost of living in the Northwest Territories. I know that perhaps we were a little critical about not enough revenue options in the budget, but we don’t want revenue options for this government that hit directly at the pocketbooks of Northerners. One thing that does that right now, which is on our books, is the payroll tax. During the election campaign — I haven’t had a chance to raise this in the House yet — I had a lot of people talk to me about that payroll tax, how it went from 1 per cent to 2 per cent and how the rebate related to that did not go up accordingly. We enjoy a fairly favourable personal tax rate. We enjoy the northern residents tax deduction, which has just gone up recently. But this payroll tax at 2 per cent without a corresponding rebate is hitting Northerners hard.
I’d like to ask the Premier: when was the last time the payroll tax was reviewed, and is it something that we could look at to alleviate the cost of living for Northerners?