Debates of Feb. 23rd, 2018

This is page numbers 3407 – 3442 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was going.

Topics

Oral Questions
Prayer
Minister’s Statement 36-18(3): Strengthening Support For Students
Indian Hospitals
Liquid Natural Gas Energy Pilot Project
National Pharmacare And Prescription Accessibility
Encouraging Youth Involvement In Politics
Dempster Highway Overflow
Unemployment And The Small Community Employment Support Program
Capturing Resource Royalties
Land Transfer Tax Impact On Cost Of Living
Homecare Services In Nunakput
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Homecare Services
Youth Council
Child And Youth Care Counsellors
Pharmacare And Prescription Accessibility
Liquid Natural Gas Energy
Northwest Territories Revenue And Tax Policy
Small Community Employment Program
Dempster Highway Overflow
Territorial Financing Formula
Written Question 6-18(3): Land Transfers In The Northwest Territories
Written Question 7-18(3): Housing Core Need Action Plan
Tabled Document 94-18(3): Yellowknife Airport Five-Year Business Plan 2018-2019 To 2022-2023
Tabled Document 95-18(3): Waste Reduction And Recovery Program 2016-2017 Annual Report
Tabled Document 96-18(3): Pharmacare: A Plan For Everyone – Report Of The Canadian Labour Congress
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Report of Committee of the Whole
Orders of the Day

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Stewart

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In our taxation division, there are tax auditors in that group, and they are pretty much constantly auditing various filers to look at their records and making sure that we are getting the level of tax.

It's not so much an audit of the entirety. It's a rotating audit of all of the various tax collectors that we would have on those, as well as some of the big payroll tax payers and those sorts of things. We have a unit where that is their business, to do those audits with businesses and with tobacco tax folks. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks again to Mr. Stewart for that response. Can he give a very high-level view of what the audits show? How much leakage is there in these areas in non-compliance paying? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Mr. Stewart.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Stewart

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think, typically, what the audits end up finding is there are some record-keeping issues sometimes with folks or that they misclassified. In the case of the fuel type, they may have misclassified some fuel types, but, generally speaking, I think, with the reality of the audits, people know that we are coming, and they tend to keep pretty good records for us.

You always find a little something that they can improve on administratively and those sorts of things, but I do not think that it would be fair to say that there is a pattern of an area where people are being non-compliant. It's really just to make sure the record keeping is done in a way that makes sure that we can feel comfortable that we are getting what we should be getting under the tax system. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to Mr. Stewart for that response. What I hear is that he has a lot of confidence that all of the tax owing is in fact tax paid in these two taxes. Can he please confirm that? Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Mr. Stewart.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Stewart

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the witnesses for their responses. Nothing further.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Next, Mr. O'Reilly.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to ask about the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link revenue line on page 140. Back in 2017-2018, it was predicted to be $1.182 million, but it was significantly less. Can someone explain what is happening there and why we are not getting the revenues that were predicted? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Mr. Kalgutkar.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Kalgutkar

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we prepared the main estimates for 2017-2018, we were projecting that the fibre line would be in service by April 1st of that year. The fibre line did not come into service until the summer of that fiscal year, which is why we saw a little bit of a drop in our projected revenues, and we are still projecting a little bit of a drop for 2018-2019.

We are being fairly conservative in our forecast. The number of customers that we do have using the line right now is what we were anticipating. They are not downloading at the capacity that we were anticipating because of the lateness of the fibre. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I did not quite catch that at the end. The demand that we predicted is not there? Is that what is driving the reduced revenues? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Mr. Kalgutkar.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Kalgutkar

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The number of customers are there. Because we were a couple of months late, we did have to undergo some testing of the fibre line. When that was happening, the amount of capacity that these customers were purchasing was lower than we were anticipating.

However, our customer count is higher than we anticipated and will be increasing shortly because we do have another satellite customer coming onboard within the next couple of months. We are seeing indications that these customers are starting to buy more capacity. As the customers start getting the confidence that the line is operating like it is supposed to be operating, I think we will start seeing the revenue start going up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I am still concerned that maybe we were overly optimistic with that one, but I look forward to seeing how it rolls out. Are there any plans to expand the network to Tuktoyaktuk or other communities along the way, like Jean Marie River? Is this something that Finance is starting to think about? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Minister.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we do have plans to expand the service down to Tuktoyaktuk, and I think it is part of our federal submission to expand it to Tuktoyaktuk.

As far as the other communities, I am not sure we have looked at those yet, but, if we have not looked at them, I am sure we will, and we will do a cost analysis of what it might cost to run lines into those communities, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Maybe it's time to update the standing committee, then, if there's a three- or five-year plan for this, given that the revenues may not be what you predicted or they're somehow going to pick up and that there is a plan to expand that. I think it's probably time to update standing committee. Is that something the Minister is committed to doing? Thanks.