Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

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.

I appreciate the summation, as I know I heard from the Minister before. But going back to the suggestion of a single distribution wholesaler in the NWT to mitigate this manual self-reporting structure as we see today, I think it’s a

wise move on behalf of the GNWT and I think it’s also a smart business decision. I guess the question is: What’s holding the Minister back from considering a solution so we can put accountability and public trust back into the system?

We’ve spent a lot of time looking at this issue. There are a number of questions and areas, of course, for further discussion. Is the issue on the wholesale side and setting up a single wholesaler, or is it on the retail side, which is where I believe the problem is, and the issue of while we can have a good system like most laws in the country, which is why we have jails and police. If people want to try to circumvent the system, as they do with tobacco, there are many ways to try to do that. Our job, as the Member has indicated, is to try to make sure that we have as airtight a system as possible. I would, of course, look forward to continued discussions on this issue with the Member and committee, as we move through business planning processes, as a way to keep this issue under the magnifying glass for a thorough discussion. Thank you.

I do appreciate the Minister for his summation again here, but I don’t believe the Minister today is clearly seeing the potential for this exploitation, this manual remittance portion. It’s clear that there is a viable solution out there with a single-source distribution of a wholesaler and it appears that it’s just not in his language. At least it’s not in a language that I think will address the issue. I have highlighted a potential problem in our tax collection process, and in doing so, if the Minister isn’t going down this pathway, what measures will he put forward so that we can put accountability back into the system?

I could repeat the findings of the internal Audit Bureau, which has given me comfort that the system overall is working. Are there improvements? Absolutely. I’m sure if we had more resources and more ability, we could have more folks on the ground.

The issue of the one wholesaler, that’s one potential way to look at things. Will it deal with the issue of retailers? I’m not convinced that it will. Am I prepared to have more discussion? I am.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister for leaning towards the direction of a single-source distribution centre, but to go further now, I believe that the issue being raised today puts some doubt in the way we’re doing our tobacco tax. In doing so, I’m asking the Minister: Could we have a whole disclosure to the House with the internal Audit Bureau so that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that we are indeed 100 percent confident that we’re collecting

this tobacco tax, and would the Minister agree to reporting these findings to this House? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The assertion initially was that we were missing up to $12 million to $15 million a year in lost tax revenue because of unreported tobacco sales. We put a significant amount of manpower onto that issue to follow up on that matter. As Finance Minister, the thought of us missing that kind of revenue, given our fiscal circumstances, immediately got my eye. We spent months doing the work. We’ve come back. The first finding is that there’s a reasonable assurance that the GNWT was collecting the required tobacco tax revenue.

The Member has some ongoing concerns. I’m prepared to look at and discuss those further. He’s made a suggestion. I don’t believe there’s a silver bullet that will provide the type of certainty that the Member asks for, and in the businesses that we’re in, I don’t think we could point to any that provides 100 percent certainty in anything we do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The emergency protection order is an incredibly valuable tool to battle family violence in the Northwest Territories. I’ve had an opportunity to talk with RCMP, NGOs and the department about the importance of these EPOs, and I’ve had an opportunity to look at the policies that exist and talk about those policies with the department and others. I believe that there are some recommendations that came forward in the report that was done in the last Assembly. We are looking at those recommendations and we will make corrections and improvements where appropriate. Thank you.

I’m glad the Minister referenced the report, because if he had a chance to read it – not to say he didn’t – but if he did read it, he’d also note that on page 28 of the report it talks about why

RCMP like EPOs. They’re a good tool because they don’t require any investigation to issue an EPO. Forty percent of the officers suggested that. But at the same time RCMP have also noted and they feel that further information to confirm the victim’s accusation to ensure that the applicant’s legitimates are applied on good grounds. Pointing at those two variances noted in this particular report, I’d like to ask the Minister again: Are the policies and procedures designed in a way to provide fairness for the accused person for whom an EPO needs to be issued? Thank you.

The Member has quoted from the report. The report is under consideration and we will make improvements to the EPO process as we move forward. The EPOs are supported by a significant number of different groups in the Northwest Territories and they have saved lives. I had an opportunity to talk with the RCMP in Inuvik when we were up there in January, and they said very clearly that EPOs save lives. At the end of the day, that’s an incredibly important thing. Thank you.

I’ve never said, to the contrary, what the Minister just stated. So I want to make sure that that’s ultimately crystal clear, that I too do believe that EPOs will save lives and are an important mechanism in our justice system. But the way the report was written, it went further on to discredit the RCMP’s position by almost suggesting – I’m being clear here – that they may be biased on their pursuit. On one hand we talk about issuance of why; because we need safety and protection. On the other hand, we have a credible force or agency in our system that says there are problems and we need to investigate them, and then they discredit them. We have a bit of a challenge here. So what is the Minister of Justice going to do to ensure and issue an edict to ensure that there is fairness and relief for people who have been falsely accused? Thank you.

The act is designed in such a way, and EPOs are designed in such a way, that there are checks and balances. When an individual comes in to file or prepare an EPO, they sit down with people who have been trained on what an EPO is and how it’s supposed to be filled out. Those individuals, through the training – and I have confirmed this with the department – are required to explain to the individual the ramifications of lies, which the act does cover as well. The act says if you lie and you’re charged, you can receive jail time or fines. There are checks and balances in place, and at the end of the day, the act didn’t create the victims, it’s the person who provided false information or lied, and those individuals can be charged under the Criminal Code as well.

The system is designed to encourage people not to lie, but we can’t stop people from lying. There will always be people who abuse systems. In this case, the case that happened earlier, that did in fact happen, and the person was charged and convicted.

But the program is important. It provides value. It needs to continue and we support it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the little leeway you have given me on this particular problem, because it is a big problem. The justice system, the Supreme Court has noted about the potential for people using EPOs is a tool for custody battles and divorces. The last thing I will point out is the report is built around three things: increasing awareness, improve access to emergency protection and to improve protection. Nowhere in this report does it support findings that are crystal clear that say that EPOs can be abused. There is not one recommendation to say we need to make sure it is fair. What is the Minister going to look at when it cites these and then discredits them? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the report is before us and it is being reviewed by the department. I had directed the department to review the training programs that they have in place, that people who assist people prepare EPOs go through to ensure that they make it very clear to individuals the ramifications of perjury. We need to make sure that people understand the ramifications of using a tool like this to hurt as opposed to help. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of New Energy Initiatives, Mr. Bob McLeod. As mentioned in my Member’s statement earlier today, fossil fuels are failing us in both supply and price, and the trends indicate that those are only going to get worse more rapidly. In contrast, jurisdictions are switching to renewable energy and proving the naysayers wrong in every case, surpassing targets big time. Will the GNWT take steps to inform themselves of this trend and implement such policies here? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels is a priority of this government. We have taken initial steps in the 16th Assembly where we invested approximately

$60 million over the lifetime of the 16th Assembly to

that very end that the Member has raised. We are following all of the developments. We have looked at what Ontario has done. We looked at other jurisdictions. It is our intention to do so. Of course, our main concern is to make sure that we continue to provide energy and that we do it at reasonable rates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.