Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government’s internal Audit Bureau spent over 600 hours of man time to investigate the allegations that have been raised in regard to tobacco, and they reached the following conclusions, which I will quickly outline:
• that there was a reasonable assurance that the
GNWT was collecting the required tobacco tax revenue;
• there was no evidence to support assertions
that collectors were under-reporting their sales volume to the GNWT;
• there was no evidence that the Northwest
Company was incorrectly reporting sales to the NWT to avoid paying the higher tax rate; and
• some small retailers were circumventing the
NWT tobacco tax collection process by making purchases from an unlicensed wholesaler in Alberta.
Thank you.