Masi. Tabling of documents. Item 15, notices of motion. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, March 10, 2017, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on March 10, 2017, it shall be adjourned until Thursday, May 25, 2017;

And further, that any time prior to May 25, 2017, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact its business as it has been duly adjourned to that time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Notices of Motions. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 8, first reading of bills. Minister of Finance.

Masi. The motion is in order.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion is carried.

---Carried

Bill 23 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Second reading of bills. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 23, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2017-2018, be read for the second time. Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriation for operations expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2017-18 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.

---Carried

Bill 23 has had its second reading. Second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole bills and other matters, Bill 7, Committee Report 6-18(2), Committee Report 7-18(2), with Member for Hay North in the Chair.

I will call the Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee, Mr. Beaulieu?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee wishes to consider Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, Committee Report 6-18(2) Report on the Review of Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Revolving Fund Act. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will consider the documents after a brief recess.

---SHORT RECESS

I will call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 7: An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act. I will ask the Minister responsible for the bill to introduce it. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to introduce Bill 7: An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act. The proposed bill would amend the Revolving Funds Act to establish a new revolving fund for the Yellowknife Airport with an authorized limit of $36 million. The purpose of this fund would be to support the ongoing capital and operations and maintenance expenditures of the Airport.

With the establishment of a revolving fund, all revenues generated by the Yellowknife Airport would be retained by the airport, eliminating our reliance on Government of the Northwest Territories subsidies to improve this critical piece of infrastructure.

Currently, operating expenditures for the airport are paid from the Department of Transportation’s annual appropriation, and capital expenditures are approved through the capital budget planning process. As such, the airport competes with hospitals, schools, and all other Government of the Northwest Territories programs for funding. This model does not allow for sufficient financial resources to support the effective long-term infrastructure investment, economic development, and business the airport needs to grow.

Air transportation in the North is vital to keeping NWT residents connected, brings economic benefits to people across the territory, and acts as a catalyst to enhance business and tourism growth.

Although we continue to work with and lobby the federal government for additional infrastructure funding, there is no guarantee. We need to act now to make improvements to ensure a safe, secure, and efficient Yellowknife Airport.

A dedicated source of funding for the airport means we will be able to invest in various improvements to the terminal building enhancing the traveller experiences and attracting new business. Making airport security more efficient, expansions in and outside the terminal such as de-icing and services after security are upgrades that key stakeholders and members of the public have repeated they want at the airport.

Bill 7 is the next step in working together with air carriers, tourism, businesses, and the public to strengthen the Yellowknife Airport in support of better passenger services, the delivery of essential cargo, and the development of northern businesses. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Do you have witnesses you would like to bring into the Chamber?

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Typically, we would go to the chair of the committee that considered the bill for opening comments, but as the report on Bill 7 was read, the Chair has indicated that is sufficient. Minister Schumann, would you please introduce your witnesses to committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is the deputy minister of Transportation, Russell Neudorf, and on my right is Michael Conway, superintendent of the North Slave Region. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 7. We have general comments. Nothing from committee. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This has been a long road coming to this place for Bill 7. Initially it came to committee and some details were omitted that didn't allow proper analysis. It went back for review for 120 days and committee has had time to consider it. Those public consultations, at least for me -- and I'll be clear, I am speaking for myself as an honourable Member of this House -- those public consultations were a real eye-opener for me. At first, the bill seemed an important step forward in delivering on crucial infrastructure improvements for the Yellowknife Airport and further economic opportunities, but the more we looked into it and the more we heard from important stakeholders, the more we realized that there was more in play here, and the proposed benefits and enhancements were less important than pulling an expensive piece of public infrastructure off the government's books and asking consumers to directly subsidize it through increased fees and taxes.

As we looked through other jurisdictions in Canada, and even through global rates of airline competitiveness, Canada ranks very poorly in affordable air travel, and largely because of increased fees and taxes that are imposed on tickets through airport authorities.

Even more recently, perhaps coincidentally in time for this debate, the CBC has launched a major investigative report into how airport improvement fees roll out across the country, and it was found that anywhere between 4 to 6 per cent of fees are kept by airlines, and this plan, this airport improvement plan, that this legislation enables didn't seem to be aware of that concern and it was not subject to committee's study, so there are a lot of unanswered questions.

It was originally called a governance reform for the Yellowknife Airport, and really it's more a governance structure for accounting, not really governance for the airport itself. There is an economic advisory committee that has been proposed, and this committee is not publicly accountable. It's not even accountable to the Minister; it's accountable to his Ministry. These are red flags in terms of creating a really robust entrepreneurial basis for funding increased economic and commercial activities at the Yellowknife Airport, and, ultimately, for a government that has pledged to keep the cost of living low, to tackle unnecessary increases to the cost of living, and that initially opposed a national carbon tax scheme out of concerns for increasing the cost of living. I find it somewhat galling that we are embarking wholeheartedly into increasing the cost of air travel in the Northwest Territories, and not just for Yellowknife but everyone who travels through that airport, which includes our world class tourism industry.

This is an industry worth subsidizing in my humble submission, Mr. Chair, and the price elasticity of airline rates has been noted in many of the submissions the committee received, and there is a direct correlation in decreased commercial activity as a result of increase in fees. People are very shrewd when they are purchasing air flights, and there are many resources out there to help make the most economical decision for them, so there will most likely be an impact; all the evidence that we were presented points to that.

Furthermore, what we heard is that people want a better airport. People want better infrastructure, better opportunities. This plan doesn't get us there any time soon. It's aspirational, and it was sold on aspirations. The immediate short and immediate term results of this plan is going to be fee increases and substantial fee increases across the board.

Nunavut and Yukon, our sister jurisdictions, are continuing to subsidize their airports. They have engaged in the federal government and in P3 projects to improve their local infrastructure and those are immediate projects that are under way today. We still don't have a plan to improve infrastructure. I would also argue that, if this is a political priority for government, then we will find the political will to put those improvements in, and if that's what the Assembly agrees to as a whole when we develop our mandate or develop those broad political priorities, then that's what takes precedent and perhaps bumps things up the capital planning list.

So I think that there's been a lot of work done on a sales pitch for this, and I appreciate that the department is trying to communicate its objectives here but I think they missed the mark. Ultimately, although this -- I can only call it a cash grab at this point has a direction that is towards airport improvement is far off, and at this time I can't support it. Perhaps under different economic conditions for our territory I could support it, but at a time when our economy is still sluggish and needs assistance from this government in the form of capital, in the form of opportunities, this is not an opportunity that is going to help our economy at this time.

This is an extra burden on the backs of Northerners who will be paying for this piece of infrastructure through fees and taxes, and those are my number one concerns: ensuring that our residents are not unduly burdened by any increases to the cost of living.

I have heard that line repeated by our Premier, by our Finance Minister, by numerous Members of Cabinet, so I can't understand why progressive things like carbon taxes can't be considered because of their undue cost yet an airport tax is completely reasonable and rational as a policy direction of this government.

So with that, Mr. Chair, I'll conclude my comments. This is not a quick decision that I have come to; this is something that has been with the committee that I serve on, Economic Development and Environment. I do want to thank my honourable friends on that committee and the work of our chair, the honourable Member from Yellowknife North, in moving this file along and ensuring that we were allowed to do our due diligence and had a thorough review of this proposal and well considered, including allowing the public to have their voices heard. Thank you.