Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the review of this piece of legislation was unnecessarily hampered by not just poor but dismal communication by the Department of Finance. It took a very considerable amount of work by our research staff to understand where the money was and is to pay for this benefit and how taking money out of income assistance for food and clothing was not at the detriment to the people who need it most. Income assistance, as you know, is not over the poverty line. I have to say that this is another example of very poor communications within the Department of Finance. They are trying to communicate information to people who are interested in hearing it, very motivated to understand it, and yet, as I say, it took an inordinate amount of work to get to a point where we could understand where it's at.

We've had these challenges as well with the public accounts. I understand that the Department of Finance doesn't have a communication staff, and I would just like to say to the Minister that it is urgently needed that the staff in his department are able to communicate clearly with the committee about the plans that they are making. There is no question that this bill will benefit 1,600 families who have not previously benefited from this NWT Child Benefit and that is undoubtedly a good thing, but the struggle to get to that clear understanding was just completely unnecessary and I believe can be remedied by proper communications help. I don't have any doubts about supporting this bill. I think it is the right thing to do, but I really would like to hope that the next work with the Department of Finance is better guided by communications. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I want to echo my colleague's comments on the need for improved communications. This is very complex area. It was sort of triggered by the Canada Child Care Benefit being brought in by the federal government, and then our government decided to follow up with the NWT Child Benefit, so the relationship between the federal program and the new territorial program and income assistance took a lot of time and effort on the part of both the department, I guess, and Regular MLAs to understand this.

I think there's a lesson learned there in terms of how to improve communications. As difficult as it may be for us as Regular MLAs to understand what was happening, I'm really much more concerned about what it is for the person on the street and how they can understand these changes. Really, you can only take full advantage of these changes when people actually file their income tax. I'd like to know from the department and the staff what extra effort are we going to do to encourage people to actually file their taxes? We're just finished that season now. You know, I don't pay attention to every piece of media that I see here, but I don't recall seeing a sustained media on the part of our government to encourage people to file their taxes to take advantage of this kind of benefit.

In any event, like my colleague who just spoke from Yellowknife Centre, I have concern around the communications of this, the complexity of it, and how we communicate this to the average person in the Northwest Territories so they can take full advantage of it and encourage people to file their taxes. Those are my opening remarks. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. I see no further opening remarks. Does committee agree that we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill?

Thank you, committee. We will defer the bill until after the consideration of clauses. Committee, please turn to page 3 of the bill. I will take a short break. Thank you, committee.

---SHORT RECESS

I will now call Committee of the Whole back to order. I believe that in the opening statements Mr. O'Reilly posed a question that he would like the Minister to respond to. Mr. O'Reilly, would you please restate your question, and I will allow the Minister a chance to respond.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess there are two items that I am hoping I can hear from the Minister or his staff about. First off, like my colleague had mentioned, I understand this is a complex area, but we have got to find a way to more effectively communicate this in general. Secondly, how are we working with people to try to encourage them to file their taxes to take full advantage of this? I didn't see any campaign around this during the last tax filing season, so what are we doing to encourage people to file their taxes to take full advantage of this new benefit? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to the first point, and that goes to Member for Yellowknife Centre's question as well on the communication. We do have communication people on staff now under the Corporate Shared Services, so communication efforts should improve. To Mr. O'Reilly's question, we work with CRA. CRA had a bit of a promotional campaign. We worked closely with them to try and get people to understand that they need to file their income tax because this is based on their income tax filing. The fact that there is an opportunity for more money in their pocket, I think, would be encouragement or incentive enough, but our improved communications and the fact that there is an opportunity for people to access more money, I think, will be incentive enough. We will continue to work on that. As we go through the next tax filing system, we will ensure that we do our part to get the information out there as to the importance of filing your income tax return. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. We can now proceed to the clause-by-clause review of the bill. Would committee please turn to page 3 of the bill. We'll go through this one clause at a time. Clause 1.

---Clauses 1 through 14 inclusive approved

Thank you, committee. Committee, to the bill as a whole. Does committee agree that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, is now ready for third reading?

Thank you, committee. Bill 17 is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act?

Thank you, committee. Thank you to the Minister and your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that the Chair rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. There is a motion to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion is carried.

---Carried

I will now rise and report progress.

May I have the report, Member for Hay River North?

Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act. I would like to report that Bill 17 is ready for third reading. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Masi. Do we have a seconder? Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

---Carried

Masi. Item 22, third reading of bills. Mr. Clerk, orders of the day.

Masi, Mr. Clerk. This House stands adjourned until Tuesday, May 30, 2017, at 1:30 p.m.

---ADJOURNMENT

The House adjourned at 4:00 p.m.