Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning made one recommendation to the department, which was to complete the mandate commitment to lower the taxes on small businesses, and that was in the amount of 1 per cent. Apart from that, the overall operation of the department is complex.
The amalgamation of human resources was a source of concern. As again, these amalgamations are being motivated by cost savings rather than operational efficiencies. Committee wants to ensure that we’re making the best possible organizational changes that are going to benefit the public and also the public service.
A lot of the policies in the Department of Finance are exceedingly complex. In fact, typically our public account scores one of the lowest marks for transparency in Canada. It would be a wonderful thing if we could make this information as transparent and understandable to the average Northerner as possible. I think that is still something we need to work on as a government.
The source of that understanding will have to come from this department. We will continue to do our work and reviewing how we can make this complex financial information more understandable. We’ll continue to fight for tax competiveness in Canada’s North as well. With that, that concludes my comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.