Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have spoken on more than one occasion about this government’s loophole policy with its manual self-reporting remittance portion of the GNWT tobacco tax. As I have stated clearly, this government’s open-door reporting process, which has the potential for exploitation by out-of-province wholesalers and local retailers, begs to put into doubt this government’s ability for accountability and public trust.
So, why once again does this Member feel the need to bring this issue before the House? One only needs to look at the recently tabled public accounts for 2012-2013 to clearly see we continue to have a serious concern on this tax collection. On page 34, section 2 of the non-consolidated schedule of revenues by source, it indicates the actual tobacco tax collection for 2012 to be $17.1 million and that we were forecasted for a slight increase in 2013 Main Estimates for $17.3 million. Without prejudice, the actual tobacco tax came in lower than expected. In fact, it was off by 11.2 percent at $15.5 million.
So, to the question: Why the approximate $2 million loss in tobacco tax revenues? Did we have 11.2 percent fewer smokers that year? Did the daily smoking rate decrease by the same percentage proportionally? We really don’t know.
What we do know, according to the recently tabled Department of Health Annual Report 2012-2013, smokers made up 37.3 percent of the population and it indicated, even with a marked improvement in the percent of smokers in the NWT, we were still higher when compared to the 2012 Canadian rate at 20.7 percent. So, okay, this has to be accurate, so why wouldn’t we accept this information as being truthful, right?
However, what is mindboggling is when you look up Statistics Canada for the percentage of residents who smoke in the NWT, in 2011 it says 34.9 percent, and in 2012 a slight increase at 35.8 percent. So do we assume that our Health department’s recently tabled 37.3 percent of our population who smoke to be an increase from 2012 or is this an error? We’re not quite sure. But what we are sure, and reminded by the Minister of Finance, is that we have fewer smokers year after year.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted