Masi. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have committed in our renewed mandate to developing a knowledge economy.

First of all, we are going to focus on advancing access to knowledge in our agricultural sector, expanding our geoscience information and implementation of the NTGS Strategic Plan, and advancing public understanding of resource development in the NWT.

The examples that the Member gave, I think, are very good examples of an initiative going forward that would work to our knowledge-based economy, and as we've heard a number of times in the past talking about with the benefits of the fibre-optic line and possibly doing a knowledge-based up in Beau-Del, I think there are some opportunities there. There are a number of issues that we are looking at, and we do recognize that going forward, it is very important that we cultivate our knowledge base to take advantage of the options that might be out there.

Thank you to the Minister for the reply, and the extensive reply. I really appreciate that. He did touch on reaching out as it related to opportunities that might be had with regard to certain industries. I talked earlier today about the challenges that we're facing with regard to climate change that are affecting us on our doorstep here, day in and day out. I also talked about mining resource extraction and challenges that they faced in protecting the environment. I also talked about the agriculture sector in the innovation and how it's affecting it. I'm wondering: can the Minister let us know if he's been reaching out as a government to those industries and to those sectors, asking them what their challenges and how innovation and technology might help them overcome those challenges?

We're always reaching out to folks out there to get their input on how they're affected by a number of different issues that are facing the Northwest Territories, such as climate change. We actually don't even have to reach out to them. They reach out to us and point out some of the challenges that they're facing, too. I think it's critically important that we continue to work with them, hear what they talk about, the challenges that they face, and then we'll have a discussion with them on some of our options and some of the things we're working on going forward, because it is a critical issue and I think now is the time to start trying to deal with the impacts of climate change and everything else on business and people across the Northwest Territories.

My final question to the Minister -- and I appreciate the previous reply. It's really good to hear that we're reaching out to industry and others to help them overcome their challenges. Let's talk a little bit more specifically about the communities. The couple of examples that I gave showed tremendous opportunity as it relates to innovation and technology and what they can bring to the communities. I'd like to know from the Minister: what is the government doing, or what can we be doing, to actually promote knowledge-based economy a little bit stronger in the communities?

Conversations such as the one we're having right now are one way to promote knowledge-based economy and to let people out there know that there are pots of money within the territorial government to come up with some initiatives like the ones the Member spoke of. I'm sure they received some assistance of some sort from the Government of Northwest Territories. Then recognizing that, going forward, anyone can put a proposal together and submit it to the Government of Northwest Territories. When we speak of the successes of some of the proposals and initiatives that have come forward, I'm sure more people will be encouraged to put initiatives forward or to think there might be an opportunity to receive some funding, because I think it is an issue that is important to the government and to all 19 Members of the Legislative Assembly. I think it's one that we need to promote and put some investment towards.

Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. The issue of changes to the Cities, Towns and Villages Act to allow tax-based communities to introduce hotel levies was discussed earlier in the sitting. The Minister responded and indicated that necessary consultations with the hotel industry stakeholders were causing the delays. These consultations have been going on since at least 2010, even before I became an MLA. I was involved in consultations that the Finance Department was undertaking at that point around a hotel levy. Can the Minister tell us what she heard from the hotel industry this time around? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't speak for Ministers from the other Legislative Assemblies. I'm not sure why they didn't move that forward. I'm sure that the honourable Member would have researched into that. However, I am committed to moving this forward within this Legislative Assembly.

Some of the feedback that we did hear right across was not only from the hotels, but there are a lot of stakeholders who we had to engage with. Some of the feedback that was voiced as concerns was: were territorial government employees going to get taxed? Were municipal governments going to get taxed? Were the residents of the territory going to get taxed when they weren't coming here for tourism?

We heard concerns about the potential of dampening the tourism market and luring tourism away from the smaller communities. We heard concerns about tourism packages, a big one, that tourism packages that were already sold for this year and how that would impact the tourism operators. Those are some of the concerns that we heard. We did get support from the six tax-based communities to support this bill, although they stated that they wouldn't be looking at using it at this point. It would only be the City of Yellowknife that would be actually utilizing this at this point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Minister for that information. I can assure her, though, that I don't think I heard anything new from when I was involved in consultations back in 2010. I'd like to know if the Minister is finally finished with these consultations and when we're going to see a bill on this in the House?

We have been working closely with the municipalities, and especially the City of Yellowknife, because it is a primary interest to the City of Yellowknife. We have not deviated from our timeline. We told them right through over a year ago that we would be introducing a legislative proposal in this sitting and that the bill would be introduced in the House in the May/June sitting. We are still on that timeline.

I'd like to thank the Minister again for that. My statement earlier today referred to the fact that the GNWT has virtually withdrawn from tourism services in the GNWT's tourism capital here in Yellowknife and that, as of April 1st, the city is going to have to continue to top up money to continue with the centre that is over at City Hall. This makes the creation of a hotel levy all the more urgent. I'd like to know: what is stopping the Minister from acting on this bill now and getting it before this House during this sitting in March?

We are working diligently on it. Like I said earlier, we are on the timeline that we had talked about with the City of Yellowknife and the standing committee. We've been putting that timeline forward for over a year now.

What is stopping it there? There is nothing stopping the bill itself. However, to meet the timeline that the Member is wanting, if he wants it introduced during this sitting, it will be of great difficulty. We are just finishing the drafting of the legislative proposal. At that point, it will go to standing committee to accept their recommendations, which are processed. After that is done, it comes back to me and then I give the drafting instructions to my department, and then we work with the Department of Justice to actually draft the bill. We are on time, and I do apologize if some of the Members feel that it's too much time, but we are on time with what we have been saying all along. We are meeting that commitment, and I am trying my best to make it happen. I promise it will happen during this Legislative Assembly.

Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I'd like to thank the Minister for that list of reasons why we can't get the bill in this sitting, but I hope she can go back to her department and work again on this. Maybe I'll start with: we don't even have a legislative proposal yet. I've looked at the Cities, Towns and Villages Act. The legislative powers are laid out in section 70(1). All that needs to be done is add one line in there about hotel levy and give the tax-based communities the authority to do it. I don't understand what's so complicated around this. Everybody I've ever talked to has been in favour of this. Let's start with this, Mr. Speaker, or I'll finish with this: when is the Standing Committee on Government Operations actually going to get a legislative proposal for this change? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I don't usually like to correct Members, but I do say that it's not only one simple line. The hotel tax levy is one piece of the puzzle that the City of Yellowknife has asked us to implement with this bill, and so with due respect to the City of Yellowknife, we're doing the hotel tax levy; but we're also looking at the funding, the energy efficiency retrofits for homeowners, so there is more than just one line within this bill. As stated, we had promised that we would bring it forward in this sitting and within the next couple of weeks. The draft legislative proposal will be provided to standing committee or offered for them to review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Masi. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Regular Members have come to the government and challenged it with trying to find other revenue options, and this is one of them. We are working and currently targeting the fall of 2016 of the Legislative Assembly for the introduction of legislation that would authorize the collection of land transfer tax. There will be opportunities coming forward for our committee to have some input, and obviously we would have to go to them before we get to that stage. There will be opportunities there for them to have input. We will provide them with all the details then. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I feared, this is a revenue grab by government, and I'm not one of those Members who are looking for new ways to increase this. I think the federal government has its hands strong on how we can actually raise taxes. My question is this new tax proposal: how much of it are we going to retain and how much of it is going to be clawed back through our funding agreements with Ottawa?

I disagree with the Member. This is not a tax grab or a cash grab. This is something that we're putting into place. My understanding is a potential revenue from this would be about $3 million. My understanding is that we would retain all of it.

Thank you for that clarification. My question is: it's $3.1 million. Does the Minister know where that's coming from? He has detailed the clear revenue figure. There must be some sense of where it's coming from. My fear is that certain parts of the territory are going to pay higher into this tax than other parts of the territory, especially with his somewhat cryptic statements in the budget address around lessening the impact. Who is going to be paying for this?