Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT needs to attract investment and we always
must be a competitive environment because we all know the world is hungry for investment. The NWT is no different. We all know government must raise its revenue through fair and sound taxation policy and we have seen the global environment be very competitive to attract opportunities.
Industry needs help, at least partway through the taxation structure, that listens to their needs. Now, the government doesn’t have to do it all and I have to stress up front, if you don’t have something to tax, you can’t raise revenue, so I hope the taxation Minister is listening to that point.
Governments need to raise taxes to raise revenue. It encourages growth through sound taxation policy and brings investment. It oftentimes controls growth when it needs to, but occasionally, when taxation structures discourage investment, they don’t come, or they leave, even worse. What that means is that it takes investment away and kills job growth.
The NWT, like every jurisdiction, is hungry for revenue growth and we need to find ways to encourage taxation by encouraging investment, not by raising taxation prices but to find a way through sound policy that encourages growth and investment.
I have been speaking to a particular telecom communication company that was born in the Northwest Territories and wants to expand and grow, but they find that the taxation structure in the communication industry is just so burdensome that they would rather leave and do business elsewhere. Why? Because the world is a global economy. Now, the Northwest Territories wants to join in to the communication network work but yet we are not supporting our homegrown opportunities. They want to try to invest and expand in smaller communities throughout the North because they have services we need, but our structured self, in essence, is depressive. It does not provide open opportunities for people to do these things.
May I remind you again, and the House, we need investment to tax, because if we can’t tax, we can’t raise revenues, we can’t take care of our folks through social programs and the social needs that we try to strive so hard to take care.
The point being here is we have seen taxation holidays and better rates for mining industries. What about other industries such as communications infrastructure? Again, the world is a different place. We can put all our eggs in the mining basket and we can see how that is playing out. We could spread our growth, create opportunity, create jobs and create revenue at the same time.
Mr. Speaker, the last point I will say is, we have different tax structures – we see them all the time – such as fuel. We could do this on this. We could
create jobs, growth; we can help everybody in the long haul. Thank you.
