Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to speak on the subject of tax incentives. Tax incentives are an effective way to stimulate and encourage certain types of economic behaviour for both the private sector and households alike. In the NWT, we have, on average, a 97-percent tax filing rate for residents, which means that any changes to the tax code will directly affect almost all Northerners, and if we do it right, tax breaks will put more money into the pockets of Northerners.
We, as a territory, need to address the deficiency of investment capital flowing into the jurisdiction, among other issues, if we are to reverse the down ward economic growth that still grips our territory. Appropriately targeted tax credits, if implemented by the next Assembly, can lay the foundation for a prosperous upturn in our economy.
Incentivizing research and development would encourage research institutions to invest and spend here in the NWT, giving the territory useful and long-lasting relationships with educational institutions from all around the world, in turn stimulating made-in-the-North innovations.
Increasing our competitiveness would bring in countless secondary and tertiary effects into our economy, allowing the NWT to stand its own against larger southern jurisdictions. It is expensive to live in the North, and employers will tell you that it can be frighteningly expensive to retain skilled employees.
Properly targeted tax incentives can help alleviate this burden, which, in turn, will pump more money into the local economy, in a way of reinvesting tax dollars into our communities.
Appropriately targeted tax credits can work to benefit investment, family finances, innovation, economic growth, and societal behavioural shifts. We are at a precipice. We, and the next Assembly, must take swift and concrete action to address our shrinking economy; otherwise, we risk seeing further cuts to services, a shrinking population, and an ever-growing higher cost of living, all of which needs to be urgently addressed by the future government.
Mr. Speaker, these issues I raise today in our penultimate session because I have been raising them for a long time, and it doesn't seem like the approach of the GNWT has been to pursue tax credits as a way to incentivize behaviour and to move things along in our economy. It needs to be done. We need to take a different approach, because what we are doing just isn't working. Thank you.