Thank you, Mr. Chair. The NWT payroll tax applies to everybody who works in the Northwest Territories where you are a resident or not. While we may get some more revenue from the fly-in-/fly-out workforce, we would also be taxing the people who work in the NWT. To that effect, we would be increasing our own cost of living and it would also cost the government more because our cost of living tax credit would have to go up commensurate with that. But after you reach a certain threshold, you would just be taxing more people who are resident than who are working here.
We can’t just tax those fly-in/fly-out workers because there’s a Charter challenge associated with that mobility right. I guess the intent of the payroll tax originally was to try to dissuade people from flying in/flying out. That hasn’t necessarily worked to the way that we thought it would, so the thinking now is to try to find other ways and means to get people to work and live in the NWT. Thank you.