Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There were two tobacco tax audits in 2013-14, one in Edmonton and one in Hay River. There were 18 petroleum products tax audits in 2013-14 and all 18 were in Yellowknife. Thank you.

From the findings we received today here from the Minister for the ’13-14 fiscal

year, can the Minister indicate what was the breakdown of the amount of the additional assessment of dollars recovered for both tobacco and fuel tax?

The additional net adjustments for tobacco audits was $378,000, and the additional net adjustments for petroleum products was $2.360 million.

What we’re hearing from the Minister today, if we compare this to last year’s public accounts, we’ve increased somewhat a number of our tax assessments from the previous year but this is translated, I believe, to a substantially larger assessment of dollars being recovered. Just my quick math here, showing about $2.7 million recovered, which is incredible.

Given these startling numbers, what measures are the Minister or the department prepared to change on how we deal with the self-reporting tax for both tobacco and fuel?

Effective April 2014 there were two additional tax audit positions put into play. It was approved during the business planning process. The regional structure was put in place. One of the new auditors was in Hay River and the other one in Inuvik to complement the manager of tax audit. We talked tax audit positions in Yellowknife. The 2014-15 audit work plan was created based on general risk assessment of the tobacco, petroleum products and payroll tax areas. Training of the new auditors, implementation of the regional structure is a focus for 2014-15, and the work plan the following planned audits for 2014-15. There were, for tobacco, four wholesaler audits, there were eight major wholesale audits, 11 in total, two in Yellowknife, one in Hay River, one in Inuvik, 17 retail audits within seven communities, 115 retailers in the NWT, six in Yellowknife, five in Hay River, six in Inuvik. The current status is eight out of the 17 retail audits have been completed to date, six in Yellowknife, one in Inuvik and one in Hay River. There have been no wholesaler audits completed to date. There have been no issues noted on the audits based on the audits to date.

Petroleum audits, five audits of major collectors, 45 and 50 active collectors, 12 of which have been major collectors, two in Yellowknife, two in Hay River and one in Inuvik. For audits of non-major collectors, one in Yellowknife, two in Inuvik and one in Hay River. Current status is there is one audit of a major collector in progress in Yellowknife. Four other audits are also in progress, one in Yellowknife, two in Inuvik and one in Hay River.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s fine forensic audit on that audit.

Given the increased interest of these two self-reporting categories, can the Minister indicate to the House why is the information of tax assessment and additional dollar recovery not readily available to the public? Of course, I understand confidentiality of locations of wholesalers and retailers are critical, however, the aggregate of such information is not. So why is it that this department is not sharing audit information publicly?

We are as transparent as possible. We, of course, are interested in being more transparent if that’s possible. We would be more than happy to have discussions with the Member and with committee about what improvements could be made.

I would also just like to touch on some additional information that I didn’t touch on before. There were also payroll audits done, payroll tax audit. Two major payroll tax collectors, and there were two done in Hay River, 23 additional payroll audits are planned, five in Yellowknife, 12 in Hay River, six in Inuvik. The current status is one of the major collectors audits is in progress and that one is in Hay River.

I appreciate the interest of the Member and we would be, of course, more than willing to have any type of discussion the committee sees as important in improving the transparency of the operation and the accountability that is currently in place.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The time for question period has expired. Item 8, written questions. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance. In April 2014 the Fraser Institute published “Canadian Government Debt 2014 – A Guide to the Indebtedness of Canada and the Provinces.” Please provide the following data, according to the definitions of the Fraser Institute Report, for the 2013-2014 fiscal year:

1. NWT government liabilities for

a) total direct debt;

b) total debt guarantees;

c) total contingent liabilities and contractual

commitments;

d) total program obligations; and

e) total government liabilities

2. consolidated government liabilities, per capita

and as a percentage of GDP for

a) total direct debt

b) total debt guarantees

c) total contingent liabilities and contractual

commitments;

d) total program obligations; and

e) total government liabilities

3. growth in consolidated government liabilities per

capita, per taxpayer, and as a percentage of GDP for

a) total direct debt

b) total debt guarantees

c) total contingent liabilities and contractual

commitments;

d) total program obligations; and

e) total government liabilities

4. total consolidated government liabilities per

capita, per taxpayer, and as a percentage of GDP

5. total government interest charges and interest

charges as a percentage of revenue.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Committee Report 7-17(5), Report on the Development of the Economic Opportunities and Mineral Development Strategies; and Tabled Document 115-17(5), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2015-2016, with Mr. Dolynny in the chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to consider Tabled Document 115-17(5), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2015-2016.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will commence after a short break.

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I’ll call Committee of the Whole to order. We agreed to consider Tabled Document 115-17(5). I would like to ask the Minister responsible, Minister Miltenberger, to make his opening comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present for the committee’s consideration the 2015-16 Capital Estimates of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The estimates represent $249 million in appropriations for government and $28 million for community infrastructure investments in the 2015-16 fiscal year.

These estimates do not include appropriations for housing infrastructure proposed by the NWT Housing Corporation in 2015-16, totaling $36 million. The appropriation for these investments will be sought during the committee’s review of the 2015-16 Main Estimates. The NWT Housing Corporation’s proposed 2015-16 Capital Plan, however, has been included in the estimates document as an information item for review and comment.

Including the proposed housing investment, the total planned infrastructure investment in 2015-16 will be $314 million.

These estimates represent the second year of a two-year increase to the capital plan of $50 million per year. Although this short-term increase will help address some critical infrastructure priorities, the GNWT will continue to have a significant infrastructure deficit going forward.

The GNWT is facing the difficult challenge of maintaining existing assets, improving housing stock and meeting legislative requirements with limited fiscal resources. Our ability to meet these needs is further constrained by a borrowing limit whose definition was broadened while the limit remains restrictive and does not reflect the debt-carrying capacity of the government. The GNWT will continue to improve our territory’s essential infrastructure base to deliver programs and services, to respond to slowdowns in the NWT’s economy or to make investments in strategic infrastructure that will better position the territory and all of Canada to maximize economic opportunities of the North.

Major highlights of these estimates include: • $108 million for highways and winter roads

across the NWT. This includes funding for the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk highway, which will largely be funded by the federal government;

• $84 million for health facility replacements,

renovations and information system upgrades, including funding required for the renovation of the Stanton Territorial Hospital project;

• $28 million to continue to contribute to

community infrastructure needs;

• $15 million for small capital projects across all

departments;

• $7 million to begin replacing the current air

tanker fleet that support forest fire operations;

• $6 million for information technology projects; • $3 million to continue the Capital Asset Retrofit

Program for energy efficiency upgrades to existing GNWT buildings, including the installation of biomass heating systems; and

• $2.5 million for improvements to NWT parks.

In addition to the significant capital investment for 2015-16 I just articulated, the government also expects to successfully conclude an agreement with Canada that will implement the new Building Canada agreement that will see $258 million over 10 years invested in infrastructure for the GNWT and municipal governments. The government intends to bring forth a supplementary appropriation in the February-March 2015 session to include the first bundle of new Building Canada Plan projects in the 2015-16 Infrastructure Acquisition Plan.

I’m prepared to review the details of the 2015-16 Capital Estimates. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much, Mr. Minister. Would the Minister like to bring witnesses to the House?

Mr. Chair, I understand that we just intend to do general comments today, so I had not arranged to have any witnesses to be brought in. Thank you.

Alright. Does committee agree to continue with general comments on TD 115-17(5)?

I will open the floor to general comments on TD 115-17(5). General comments. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Minister bringing forward the capital estimates for 2015-2016. Of course, I want to keep my comments as general as I can. I will base my dialogue on the presentation that I just had here.

First and foremost is to understand where our debt ceiling is going to start trickling to with the hopefully successful completion of the capital estimates. We know that this is a $249 million initiative in appropriations. Where does the Minister see, should this appropriation be passed in its entirety, that places us in our fiscal picture in terms of fiscal health? How close do we get to our borrowing limit, and how far do we get into our short-term borrowing limit? I believe we have a $275 million short-term borrowing limit. So I guess my first general

comment would be where do we see ourselves fiscally should this appropriation be passed? Thank you.