Thank you, Ms. Lau-a. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I guess committee heard other information from, and I believe my colleague from Kam Lake, the chair of the committee, talked about how one hotel chain put together information based on industry-wide standards. It had indicated that there would be about a little more than $1.1 million with the existing exclusions. By my rough calculations, GNWT excluding itself, that would immediately reduce the revenue stream by about 25 percent. That's okay.

You know, my position, I think, is that there should be no exclusions. That's familiar treatment, that everybody pays the airport improvement fee on their tickets. Some folks felt that that should be transitioned in over a period of time, but everybody pays that. There's no exclusion for government employees or government travel from airport improvement fees. My preference would have been to have no exclusions whatsoever, but I can live with the exclusions that are in there. I wouldn't want them reduced any further, because I think then it will start to limit the revenues that are made available to our tax-based municipalities, should they wish to pursue this.

I want to thank the department for the information they have provided here today. Some of that's new to me. I do support the bill. I commend again the committee and the City of Yellowknife and the other individuals who did present on this legislation. I look forward to its passage. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Moses, did you want to comment?

No, I'll take it as commented, I think, for the good comments from the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we all know, the primary issue in this bill is giving municipalities the authority to implement a hotel levy. From our discussions, it sounds like Yellowknife is the only one considering this. Every other municipality seems to think that administering this fee would cost more than it would ever bring in. I mean, in Hay River, I think we are lucky if we have 50 percent occupancy. It's much higher in Yellowknife. I think the territorial average is 70 percent, but I think Yellowknife's occupancy is probably being brought down by the rest of the territory. Because if anyone comes to Yellowknife at this time of the year, you see Aurora viewers everywhere. If I wake up in the middle of the night and I look at my window at two in the morning, there are four buses lined up in front of the Quality Inn of tourists coming to this town.

You know, Yellowknife has indicated that they would like this, and no one else has indicated that they have any interest in this. For the foreseeable future, that's essentially what seems to be the plan.

This bill is purely for the benefit of Yellowknife. I have no problem with tourists coming to Yellowknife. You know, a rising tide lifts all ships, and I think that anything that is good for the Yellowknife is also good for the territory in many respects, not all respects.

My issue is that a lot of people in the territory come to Yellowknife because this is where services are centralized. I have no issue with charging this fee to tourists, but when people have to come here because this is where sporting events are held and you have these youth hockey teams stay, doing bottle drives and raising money so they can come to Yellowknife and play hockey, now we are going to hit them with a hotel tax on top of that, they are going to need to raise more money.

Businesses have to come here often because this is where the government is, or this is where a lot of businesses are centered. We are taking it out again on small business. When I'm speaking of small business, if you look at this list of exemptions, I mean, it's pretty complicated. There's nothing in this legislation that says the hotel can pass off the administration of this to the municipality. If the City of Yellowknife wants to implement this and say, "Okay, hoteliers, you have to determine who is eligible for this and who is not," it's going to be an administrative nightmare for the hotels. It's going to cost them money, you know. We have enough red tape and enough small business issues in this territory that we don't need to be adding one more.

What I would like to see is that this particular provision does not apply to any NWT residents. It will make it easier for everyone involved, you know. Admittedly, it will decrease the tax revenue, but perhaps they will save it on the back end when it comes to administration. We don't know, because no one has provided this committee with any numbers, despite us asking.

I had another point here. I was just pausing to bring it back up. Well, I think I said most of it. I'll let it slide, and maybe I'll get back to it in the clause-by-clause review. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Moses, do you want to provide a comment to that?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you go through the provisions, there are provisions in here that allow for further exemptions to be prescribed through regulations, and then as the bylaws have been under the bylaw, it also gives the council discretion to provide for exemptions from the tax, in addition to those required through the regulations.

In terms of looking at all GNWT residents, as the Member knows, we did look into that. We got legal advice. It did create a possibility for a challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That was a big concern. I did have a chat with the Member about that on a couple of occasions, but I think what we have the in the bill right here can adjust some of the issues. We will work with the city in terms of the concerns that are raised here in the House and any other concerns that we do hear as we roll out this legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In terms of a charter challenge, I have heard different views. I have my own views on this. I think the government is being overly cautious, overly risk-adverse, as it usually is. Anyone can bring a Charter challenge for anything. It doesn't mean it's going anywhere, so I think the government is taking that concern a little too seriously.

The other issue that I was trying to remember was destination marketing. Right now, we give NWT Tourism, I think, around $4 million a year to go out and market the NWT. Well, that is exactly what the City of Yellowknife said that they want to use this money for. If the City of Yellowknife now raises another million dollars a year -- I am making numbers up, but if they raise a million dollars a year, and they put that towards destination marketing, are they then getting the benefit of this tax, coming out of the pockets of residents to a great extent, as well as the benefit of the NWT Tourism money that is appropriated through this legislature?

I would like the Department of ITI, which appropriates NWT Tourism with that money, to work with NWT Tourism if this, in fact, passes and perhaps spread the money out a little more evenly so that this tax doesn't just benefit Yellowknife. Perhaps that $4 million, if it is a million raised here, that million can be displaced from NWT Tourism elsewhere in the territory to help the tourist markets in the rest of our regions. Nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will talk to my Cabinet colleague from ITI with the suggestion that was raised by the Member, and as I said, the revenues that do come out of this, it is going to be our first year, so we are going to see what those final numbers are and see what the City of Yellowknife gets.

Then we also have the other opportunity for the energy retrofits that the city can use. All of this money might not go into tourism. Some of it might go into energy retrofits with some private homes, possibly.

Thank you, Minister Moses.

Sorry, Mr. Chair, I'm making a correction here. My mistake, sorry. I stand corrected.

Thank you for that correction, Minister. Next, I have Ms. Green.

Thank you. Mr. Chair, one of the challenges of this job, as a Yellowknife MLA, is that Yellowknife is usually considered in this legislature as just one of 33 communities, and of course, it is, but on the other hand, half of the population lives here, and it is the major economic driver of the entire territory.

Along comes the City of Yellowknife, and they want some independence to raise money, to market tourism, to grow that sector of our economy, and they do not get a lot of love from this government. Independence is to be frowned on. Being a chattel is the way of the future. They are completely hobbled by this ridiculous list of exemptions.

This list is not like the Alberta list. The Alberta list takes into account things like rental accommodation, nursing homes, hospitals, staff housing, and other things which are obviously not rented to tourists, but it doesn't try to exempt every person or activity in the province of Alberta. My first question for the Minister is: how was this list of exemptions created? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Ms. Young.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister tell us which of the list that the deputy just provided recommended that GNWT be exempt? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As my deputy minister had mentioned, there was a very long consultation process that we had with a lot of stakeholders.

In terms of the GNWT exempt, that came from the GNWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Green.