Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since most of us on this side picked on the Finance Minister yesterday, I figure that it’s my turn today.

Since the publication and promotion of the revenue options

paper a short while ago, I have heard from

quite a number of people in regard to the proposed options. From their comments two things became quickly evident: the concern for the current high cost of living that they experience and a strong aversion to an increased tax burden on individuals.

I absolutely agree with both of these concerns. I said publicly some time ago that any new revenue must have minimal impact on NWT residents as individuals. My constituents expressed the need to see the Finance Minister consider other possible actions to raise revenue. Targeting the earnings of fly in/fly out workers is high on their list, as is targeting the profits of resource companies. Any revenue grab that increases the cost of living for

our residents is not acceptable to the constituents of Frame Lake.

Mr. Speaker, all MLAs received many, many cost cutting suggestions last year prior to the passing of this previous year’s budget. Implement only some of these suggestions and our revenue needs will be thoroughly reduced. For example, has the government seriously considered reducing or eliminating the printing of annual reports, and if not, why not?

Savings can be achieved by reducing wasteful spending, and it is our front line and middle management people who know where that wasteful spending is happening. The Finance Minister must consider establishing a committee of GNWT employees composed only of front line and middle management staff who represent all departments and agencies, a committee that reports directly to the MLAs and/or the Finance Minister. Let them tell us what they see. Implement their recommendations, and I guarantee that our expenditures will be reduced significantly.

Our employees do care, Mr. Speaker, and they will assist us in reducing our spending if we give them the opportunity. I look forward to a letter from the Minister of Finance advising us of the establishment of our new staff committee.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Ms. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to talk about the tax revenue options paper that was put out by the Minister of Finance — really quite an extraordinary waste of time. We might as well have been asked to go out and ask our constituents if they’d like us to poke them in the eye with a sharp stick.

Given the fact that the cost of living is at a historic, astronomical high level and we’re going into the winter season here, what a catastrophic waste of time to discuss this. If the government really had any ideas about a resource pact, then the time and effort would have been better invested in coming forward with something we could consider in that area.

Let me just read off a few of these here. Personal income tax, payroll tax, corporate income tax, capital tax, fuel tax, tobacco tax, insurance tax, liquor tax, sales tax, hotel tax, carbon tax, property tax, health insurance premiums, highway tolls, airport fee or tax. Mr. Speaker, obviously not a lot of thought went into this list. It was just throwing everything on the table, and now we’ve spent money bringing people in to talk about this.

Really, the only thing I’m concerned about now is that by putting such an untenable list on the table in front of us — perhaps when we have to react and respond in the predictable way that this is not going to fly — this government will then use our reaction, our response, to say, “Well, sorry; we can’t buy into any of these revenue options and any tax options,” which are completely unpalatable. Then we’re going to have to look at further program cuts. I hope that isn’t the sinister plot behind this discussion paper.

Let me state clearly for the record now that we aren’t going to be drawn into any such trap. We recognize that most of what you put on the table is a red herring. We’ve been down the road before on some of these taxes, and the Minister of Finance well knows that there was absolutely no appetite in the public. This is to add insult to injury at a time when we are trying to retain Northerners and recruit Northerners to our territory. Then to put forward even something as ridiculous as some of these suggestions…. Spend your time on something useful. Think what you can do about our resource tax.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 4, reports of standing and special committees. Item 5, returns to oral questions. Item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to introduce to the Assembly Elder Samuel George and Elder Jeff Anderson. They are missionaries doing good work in our community. My wife and I have had the pleasure to get to know them while they are here. Elder George is from Utah, I believe, and Elder Anderson is from Idaho, if I am correct. Anyway, they are here to do good work in our community.

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to be able to acknowledge and recognize a constituent of mine, Mr. Ron Shaefer. With him is his niece Renee Grandejambe. Welcome to the Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. If I’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the House. I hope you are enjoying the proceedings.

Item 7, acknowledgements. Item 8, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I am hearing is the Finance Minister conceding on most of these tax initiatives. I am really curious about why he is wasting everyone’s time. It seems quite clear on that side of the House that they don’t even think all of these are going to be taken seriously by them, let alone the public. So why didn’t the Finance Minister put the test to committee, one by one on these suggestions, and ask if committee would support these or not? Can I get that answer? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There were briefings provided to committee about the potential options on May 27. I quote from Hansard, page 613, a report from the Standing Committee on Government Operations.

“Committee members found that in order to create long-term financial stability for the Northwest Territories, the governments should not only look at reducing costs but also explore options for revenue increases…. The creation of a heritage trust fund…. The committee also encouraged the government to look into alternative means to generate revenue, like taxation of minerals and resources and the introduction of a carbon tax, or changes to the fuel tax administration. The committee hopes that alternatives and new initiatives for revenue generation will be presented during the next business planning cycle.”

Mr. Speaker, we have taken that advice very clearly. I indicated in my Minister’s statement today that we had made adjustments. We are doing the work to come to committee, and we appreciate the feedback from the Members.

I would also suggest to the House that if we just arbitrarily came forward and said we are doing this, that or the other thing, then we would be pilloried for not consulting appropriately and making these decisions without giving the people, or possibly the Members, the freedom to chose from an amount of taxes that are available for consideration.

It’s nice to see, for a change, that the other side of the House is listening to our side of the House, but I don’t seem to remember seeing a fuel tax. I remember a sales tax in that list.

Mr. Speaker, I think I heard from the Finance Minister’s little special speech there, which he had seemingly prepared, that he recited carbon tax and resource tax. Why aren’t you putting your focus into those ones that we suggested as opposed to some

of these red herrings, such as sales tax? You’re really wasting our time, your time and the public’s time. Why didn’t he do that?

First it was Dijon mustard; now it’s red herring. I don’t even particularly care for fish.

However, clearly, Mr. Speaker, we have left everything on the table. As we look at concluding the consultation process, we will look at all the options that are there. I laid out yesterday some very significant potential revenue generators in terms of the territorial nominee program for immigration that we believe could bring in as many as 150 new Northerners a year plus their families. I also suggested and laid out the option to look at fully using the SEAs, socio-economic agreements, which are bilateral agreements with the mines, where we could bring, as the Member for Kam Lake has raised in this House, hundreds of those current fly in/fly out workers who could actually take up residence in the North. We are going to look at the whole range of options.

Once again, I do appreciate the Member’s feedback. I would ask him to bear with us through the consultation process, but clearly their feedback is critical as well. Thank you.

Speaking on that line, has he heard anyone out there say that they wanted a sales tax? Because if we open that door — whether it’s 1 per cent, 8 per cent, whatever per cent — we’ll never shut it. Has he heard anyone glowingly say that this was a good idea? Where did this crazy idea of a sales tax come from?

What I have heard people across the land say is that there is a level of service the government provides that they have come to expect and count on, that we have huge needs out there that we need resources to meet. We are taking the steps on the revenue side, but we’re also looking to control our expenditures. Nobody necessarily likes taxes, but we have to weigh whatever taxes are going to be there against the value that they bring for the common good in terms of the programs and services for the people of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know what? A lot of people want to know how much this is going to cost when they find out what a waste of time has been conceded by Cabinet. I mean, you could have spent a lot of time…. Just an extra meeting with Regular Members to say that these are the good ideas you should maybe take to the public. We’re not saying that it has to be these ideas, but we’re saying these are the ones that I’m sure they’ll be willing to listen to.

So how much is this little fiasco going to cost the general public to just hear no, no, no? Thank you.

I don’t agree with the label of “fiasco.” The Member himself has asked in this House, if I can quote from page 1194 of Hansard, June 12, where he asked the Finance Minister of the day:

“What is he doing on revenue options? What is he doing to put new revenue options on the table for the Territories to go forward so we can make up for these ups and downs in our revenue stream?”

He further goes on to say:

“The issue really is: when are we going to deal with this issue? The fact is that there are no revenue generating initiatives in this. We’ve heard: We’re going to think about it. We plan to do it. We hope we’ll get $10 million in our revenue stream. But people are asking when. From my point of view, I need to know when we’re going to do this. Mr. Speaker, will the Finance Minister tell us today when we will see this discussion paper?”

Mr. Speaker, we have worked hard and long over the course of the summer to comply with the very specific request from the Member for Yellowknife Centre. I would hope that he would be a tad more appreciative of the work that has gone in, approach it in a constructive manner and offer us his best advice during this process.

Applause.

Oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m having trouble hearing you over all the raucous noise in the chamber.

In my statement I spoke about suggested ways to reduce expenditures and save money, and I asked a specific question in my statement. I’d like to address the same question to the Finance Minister. Has this government given serious consideration to the implementation of electronic distribution of annual reports for our departments, our boards and our agencies, and if not, why not? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That suggestion has been made. We believe, as the Member does, that there is potential there. That matter is currently under review to see how we could do that to meet all our obligations and to put a cost on not doing it as opposed to

doing it electronically to make sure that we have the proper records and such. That is a suggestion that we think is a good one.

I’m glad to see that occasionally the other side does listen to us, because I believe I made that suggestion some time ago. That came from a constituent, by the way, so I think that is evidence of what I was saying in my statement, that there are a lot of suggestions out there which we would be well advised to listen to.

I’d like to ask the Minister when we can expect to see a conclusion of the review that he says is ongoing.

As I indicated in the House yesterday, the process is going to carry on until the middle of October. We’ve asked people to provide feedback. We’re pulling together the work from the two day round table, at which point we will print up and release the document with the results and recommendations from the round table. At the same time, we’ll be considering all the feedback. As I indicated, then we will start building our suggestions and recommendations into the business planning process that we’ll be starting in mid-November.

I thought I heard the Minister talking about the round table recommendations, and I hope he means that the review of printing reports is part of that consideration of the stuff that came from the round table.

I’d like to ask the Minister, as well, if he can tell me whether or not we have any policies in place that guide the use of print advertising by our department.