Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak on an issue which has left me and many Northerners with a bitter taste in our mouths, the sugar-sweetened drink tax. This government has stated that it wishes to address health outcomes in the territory and proposes to achieve this goal by the creation of a new tax. Let me be clear. The creation of a new arbitrary and regressive tax is not the course we should be taking right now.

This tax arbitrarily targets pop only from fountain drinks and pre-packaged cans and bottles. It exempts pop mixed with alcohol, the sugar in your coffee or tea, flavoured milk, flavoured yogurt drinks, and fruit juice.

Now, I hope I do not need to remind the honourable Members of this House of just how difficult it is for Northerners with low incomes to get by in the territory nor how local small businesses have already been feeling the crunch of our declining economy. Adding to the cost of living for residents and adding to the administration costs for business is not the way we should be combatting diabetes, obesity, or trying to improve oral-health outcomes.

Even by the GNWT's own estimates, the new tax will just barely generate more revenue than it will cost to administer, let alone reduce consumption. This is a misguided approach that uses a tax to achieve health outcomes. This ought to be a Department of Health issue, not a Department of Finance issue. Forcing people to pay more for calories they consume in the hope that they will change their consumption habits is patently absurd.

We must continue to combat obesity, diabetes, and poor oral health through education, access to sports, and availability of alternatives, not through further taxation, and yet this government continues its wrong-headed approach in increasing the cost of power, raising fees, upping service rates, and pushing new taxes. Enough is enough, and I urge Members of this House not to support this new sugar tax. Any support for this tax will only serve to add more pressure on those already living on overstretched home budgets. Mr. Speaker, taxpayers can only be squeezed so hard before they break. Thank you.