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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s reply there. Some jurisdictions in North America are stockpiling fuel at today’s market price. Some are renting extra storage and realizing that these fuel savings trump storage costs.

If this is indeed the case, can the Minister indicate if his department is considering doing the same to keep stretching these savings to the residents? Thank you.

The shelf life of fuel is about three years, and we also need the capacity in order to store fuel. The Member is correct; there are possibilities of renting storage for fuel, but I think the cost of fuel would have to be considerably lower than what we’re anticipating in the future in order to make it feasible. So right now we’re looking at filling up our own capacities, to buy as much fuel as possible at this point with the capacity that we currently have without renting from outside of government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a coordinated approach between Municipal and Community Affairs and Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.

Can the Minister clarify whether a simple majority on the plebiscite or option poll is enough to prove that a community wants a name change? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I can’t clarify that right now, but I would assume it’s 50 percent, 51 percent to approve a name change. But I will confirm that and relay that on to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Does the government have an official position on community name changes and does it actively support communities that want to take this step, or is the government neutral on this matter? Mahsi.

We work with the communities and if there’s a desire from the communities to change their name to their more traditional language, which a lot of them are doing, this government would fully support the position of the community, and if that’s their wish then we will respect that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister explain, for the sake of the community understanding this process, what would the process entail and perhaps how long might that process take? Mahsi.

Thank you. As far as how long the process goes, I’m really not quite sure. We will work with the communities and try to expedite their desire to change their name if they wish to do that. So I will get the correct information and I will share it with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Finance Minister regarding taxation policy. A communication company has approached the Northwest Territories government and wanted to talk about creating a better or more appropriate taxation environment for investment and communication equipment and they’re trying to expand throughout the Northwest Territories, but at this time the monopoly seems to have all the corners covered and it’s very discouraging for a new business or a small business to invest in the NWT if the taxation climate isn’t favourable or reasonable or certainly one that is welcoming.

Can the Minister of Finance give us an update as to what type of taxation policy and flexibility do we have to create tax holidays that encourage investment, growth and long-term revenues for the Government of the Northwest Territories, and at the same time encourages job growth that we so dearly, direly need? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we are doing as a government is investing over $80 million in a Fibre Optic Link that’s going to go all the way up and down the valley. It’s going to hook in all the small communities. It’s going to create tremendous business opportunity for the final mile piece in the communities in terms of all the services that need to be provided for, the infrastructure to support those services.

So we see this approach, and the Member touched on it in his statement, about it’s not so much the taxing, it’s the creating the conditions for economic development and that’s what we see our focus on. If the Member would rather me try to give a smorgasbord of what may be possible for what the Member calls tax holidays, I’m more interested or we’re more interested in tax fairness. If he has a specific suggestion, I’m happy to discuss that. Thank you.

Governments have been very generous on tax holidays and I see his point about, well, let’s just put one particular issue on the table, but often we hear, well, we shouldn’t single out an industry. So now I’m hearing we should single out an industry. So I’ll say, would the Minister be able to create a tax environment that invests in communication equipment? He so rightly highlighted the $80 million investment in the Fibre Optic Link. Well, here we are drawing the attention of the world. Why don’t we expand a little further so that attention of the world gets investment in our communities through a communications taxation scheme that encourages the investment and will demonstrate long-term job growth and stabilized revenue that meets our needs?

Thank you. Our corporate income tax is, I believe, 11.5 percent, which puts us somewhere in the middle in terms of corporate taxes across Canada, middle to the lowest, I think on the low side. Our small business tax is, I believe, very modest, as well, 4 percent I believe. So when the Member talks about a tax holiday for telecommunications, for certain telecommunications, he’d have to be clearer. It’s maybe not that easy to say that there’s going to be a lot of implications and why we would focus on one particular industry when I’m sure that we would be able to hear a very strong case from just about

every sector about why they should all be given tax holidays. Thank you.

I’m not talking about every industry. I’m talking about ones that we’re spending a fair bit of money in. We’re spending $80 million on the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link, which is a great thing. Well, let’s support that with a tax structure that supports new investment. New investment means new taxation opportunities. If people don’t invest money, we don’t have taxation opportunities, no growth. That’s what I’m talking about.

So what is wrong with developing a climate that encourages new investment, which would be new taxation opportunities? Thank you.

I would argue quite strenuously that the $82 million investment in the Fibre Optic Link is just the kind of investment that the Member is talking about. We’re putting in critical economic infrastructure that helps create the conditions for development.

When you are in business, there are all sorts of write-offs, depreciation, capital investments, construction investments that can be written off. So, once again, the Member is making a fairly sweeping statement. He’s decided that the focus should be a certain aspect of the telecommunications industry and it’s not clear enough to me how he would make that justification and not other sectors or why not the whole area. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister can say what he wants, but the fact is this Member is trying to do something and the Minister is trying to defend the status quo. The point is we have to encourage investments, outside investment, in order to create growth and jobs. That’s all I hear is lip service from this government. Here’s a real opportunity, Mr. Speaker.

Will the Minister go back to the table and say how can we target markets to encourage investment in the Northwest Territories? As far as the Mackenzie Fibre Optic Link, we are paying for it and we don’t tax ourselves. We want outside investment coming to the NWT. I’ve heard this for years about how we want to get people and money here, so this is how we do it.

Will the Minister take it back to the table and ask his officials, who all like to say no, to find a way to do it other than finding a way not to do it? Thank you.