Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t have too many comments here, but I did want to make a couple of comments. At the outset I have to say that I am dismayed that overall the government and in particular Finance, because this is where most of the revenues come from, is that there is no new source of revenue in the 2012-13 budget. There has been an opportunity in the last two years. The Minister has held a roundtable with organizations and individuals and has had lots of input into possible revenue sources and yet has not acted on that. I know the Minister feels that this is not the right time to go after a tax. I am not suggesting a tax. There are other opportunities for us to get revenue, particularly from our corporate entities that are operating within the territory.
I look at the statement by the Minister on the second page of his opening remarks. We are looking at an increase of $74 million in federal transfers, a projected increase of $55 million in corporate income tax. That is a fairly large increase in revenue, but on the other hand, the government is pretty much, they’re telling us we don’t have money, they’re telling us that things are very tight, we can’t spend, so to speak. I’m exaggerating a little here, obviously. Yet in the last day we’ve been advised that we need to spend $10 million perhaps on a capital project. We are looking at a supplementary appropriation already for this budget year. We haven’t even got ourselves one-quarter of the way into it. So I’m feeling that although I agree with the fiscal strategy that the Minister has put forward, I’m feeling like we are being asked to hold our nose and not spend money on the one hand, and yet the government can pretty much spend however much money they want on the other and the philosophy doesn’t really jibe for me. So I simply wanted to express my displeasure at that.
I note the renewal of the Financial Administration Act is a focus of this department’s budget and I’m really glad to see that. It is an act that does need renewal. It’s been sort of talked about for the last two years and I would hope that we would get to either an LP position this year so that we can start to move this forward, because I think there does
need to be some action relative to the Financial Administration Act.
As the Minister points out, we are looking at a fibre link through the Mackenzie Valley, I absolutely support that. I think that is something that we do need to look at and I wish the department good luck in trying to finance it.
The last bullet from the Minister is developing a strategy that plans to ensure stable revenues for planning and budgetary purposes. I’m not sure if he’s referring to a stabilization fund or not, but that is a concept that I agree with. We get huge swings in our revenues from corporate income tax and if we can find some way to minimize those swings and to provide sort of a fairly level income through our revenues from year to year, I think that would certainly be a good thing.
Lastly, I want to mention I’m hoping in the very near future that we will have a legislative proposal for the Northern Employee Benefits Service concerns. They need some legislation that can provide them with some security and some coverage through the law. So I’d like to know from the Minister whether that’s coming forward in the near future. I know that it’s being worked on, but it’s been in the works for probably five or six years and I think it’s time that we actually take some concrete action here. So I’m hoping that will be coming in this fiscal year. That concludes my remarks, Mr. Chair.