Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Replies to budget address, day 5 of 7. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I love taxes. I can and want to pay more taxes to help those in need here in the Northwest Territories, in Canada, and elsewhere in the world. I just wish there were others in this House that believed the same, especially on the Cabinet side.

"Taxes are what we pay for civilized society", so said American Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior in 1927. If we truly want better programs and services for the residents of the Northwest Territories, a more sustainable financial future, a just and compassionate society, and a planet we can pass on to our children, we must be willing to raise and pay more taxes. A good government does its best to ensure an equitable distribution of resources. I'm sorry to say we have collectively failed and this budget does very little to move us in the right direction.

I had to push very hard to get the Minister of Finance to prepare and then post a revenue options discussion paper last year. The paper was finally released just two or three days before the public engagements that were held on the 2022-2023 budget that is before us. The current budget offers this throw-away statement with regard to taxes: "We will continue to monitor the data on who is paying taxes in the territory and on what kinds of income. At the moment, we have only a small number of individuals who could potentially be in a higher tax bracket." The other reason for not adding a higher income tax bracket is the "substantial risk to our competitive position". Let's look at the facts, Mr. Speaker.

The finance minister's revenue options paper shows that the Northwest Territories is one of only six Canadian jurisdictions that have less than five income tax brackets. We have got three.

We had the second lowest combined top marginal personal income tax rates in the country, more than 5 percent below the average. If the GNWT brought in a new high income tax bracket of 16 percent for those earning $200,000 or more taxable income, it would affect 420 taxpayers - the top 1 percent. It would raise their taxes on average about $2200 a year and bring in another $1 million in revenue. That's not a lot but it should be the beginning of a more serious look at tax fairness, something this Cabinet started with a reduction in small business taxes that cost our government $1.4 million with no effort to replace those revenues.

Another high-income tax rate bracket would also help to replace the corporate resource giveaway earlier in the life of this Assembly when the ITI minister gave a 15-year significant discovery licence to Husky Oil, with no rental fees, costing us $21 million in lost revenues.

What other opportunities are there to raise more revenues?

The promise of devolution and more resource revenues has been a dismal failure. Low commodity prices and financial uncertainties are partly to blame but our chronically low resource royalties are the biggest problem. ITI contracted a report that applied an internationally-accepted framework for managing natural resources in 2017. That study gave our fiscal regime for mining a failing grade in terms of revenue generation. "The NWT has one of the world's most charitable fiscal regimes for the mining sector, one that captures 20 to 30 percent of economic rents from mining projects, net of costs. This is compared to between 30 to 35 percent in South Africa, 45 to 60 percent in Peru, and 50 to 80 percent in Western Australia."

A more recent study commissioned by the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment found that "the NWT sells its nonrenewable resources more cheaply than most other jurisdictions in the world" and "we find that the after-cost share of revenues to the government (the government take) is around 36 percent, with 22 percent for the NWT and 14 percent for the federal government.

The International Monetary Fund suggests that a government should expect 40 to 60 percent from a mining project. We are simply giving away our resources when we should be maximizing the benefits. The recently released discussion and research papers on mining royalties are so vague and biased that it is hard to see how any meaningful public engagement is going to take place. Regular MLAs and the public have yet to see a real plan and schedule for the development of regulations under the Mineral Resources Act. The snails-pace development of royalty regulations by this Cabinet has little chance of being completed during our term and resources will simply continue to be shipped out of here without maximizing revenues and benefits for NWT residents, let alone future generations.

Other new revenue resources our government needs to more seriously consider include a capital tax on financial institutions. We are only one of five jurisdictions without such a tax in Canada. Our wildly fluctuating corporate taxes are a lousy way to capture benefits from resource development and should be supplemented with a resource tax or capital investment tax.

There is no mention in the entire budget of any efforts to stabilize or increase any revenue sources. We need to start to have a real public debate about options to raise revenues, including an updated territorial formula funding arrangement that allows us to keep more, if not all, of our own source revenues.

Some, and perhaps many, will say that a pandemic is not a good time to introduce new taxes or increase taxes but our current path is completely unsustainable and we need to have that debate. I would argue now is the best time to examine our core values of sharing, justice, equity and whether these are truly reflected in our revenue efforts as we recover and rebuild.

Another way to spend more on our programs and services for those that need them the most is to reduce our capital spending. I won't go on too long about this as I covered a lot during the debate on the capital estimates. There is no use trying to spend money on projects during a pandemic when about half that money is carryovers from previous years, and we still don't have significant improvements in our procurement process to better retain benefits.

The spending priorities in the capital budget, especially on questionable projects such as Taltson Expansion and the Slave Geological Province, do not reflect my priorities or our collective needs such as housing. Treat housing like it's a mega-project, and provide the jobs we say we're pursuing with the big projects. We can't do it all and we need to focus on people and their housing needs, not mega-projects with no funding, no business cases, and no buyers. We simply cannot afford them all at once, even if the federal government gave us or other potential partners all the money. There would be lots of costs in simply managing these projects after completion. Just look at the $12 million a year that the GNWT must pay each and every year for another 25 years for the Tlicho All-Season Road. Those project payments are eating into our ability to spend on programs and services. Stop the spending on these wasteful large projects now and use that funding on housing, education, and healthcare that will make a real difference in people's lives. If Cabinet has to have one mega-project, use a phased approach for the Mackenzie Valley Highway to ensure that we can maximize local benefits.

The government renewal initiative has slowed down and I've yet to see any results. While I support the concept of program evaluation and review, this work cannot possibly find spending cuts to fund our unsustainable path when there is overspending on capital, growing debt, and no willpower to raise more revenues.

In terms of the budget process, I can say that the relationship and negotiations with Cabinet over financial matters have been cordial and respectful, a much different and welcome change from the previous Assembly. I have recommended several times, to no avail, that it would be more helpful to have a meeting with the Minister of Finance and Regular MLAs to discuss priority areas for increased funding prior to the development of a budget. That didn't happen but I would again encourage the Minister to do this next year to ensure Regular MLA input much earlier into the process.

While I appreciate the difficulty of trying to carry out prudent fiscal management during a pandemic, we are facing a fiscal crisis despite anything said to the contrary by the finance minister. We just had our debt limit increased to $1.8 billion and in this budget we will be at $1.7 billion.

Debt continues to increase at a pace greater than our revenues and spending. I agree with my colleague from Yellowknife North and others in this House that I had hoped for a substantial increase in the funding for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation that has failed to materialize in this budget. Of course we are still waiting for a plan to get our residents out of core housing needs, something I've been waiting for for about five years now.

I believe there are ways to fund more work on housing through the tax increases and other revenue options I mentioned earlier. I also believe that there is room to reduce some travel expenditures further and contracted services as well. There are some staffing increases in the Department of Finance that I think we can do without so we can redirect those funds to some of the priorities of Regular MLAs as well.

Much of the funding for the COVID Secretariat functions are likely not necessary given the pace at which the public health emergency is going to be lifted as mentioned even earlier today by the Minister of Health and Social Services.

I can support some of the new funding in this budget for healthcare, reducing the municipal funding gap even if the additions don't keep pace with inflation, the support for vulnerable populations, education, and childcare. Some of the economic initiatives could be better focused on diversifying our economy.

I am increasingly worried at the lack of progress on completing the ongoing Indigenous land rights negotiations and implementation of the agreements already in place. There is apparently around $1 million for new work on barren-ground caribou although I am eagerly awaiting details, especially to see if this government is finally going to do something about habitat protection.

There is little to no mention of the untapped potential of arts and culture to diversify the economy. This is no-brainer in my opinion, and there isn't even a whisper of it in this budget. The vague arts strategy should have been used to help identify opportunities for investment and spur on economic recovery but there is nothing in this budget for that work.

I will be happy to work with my colleagues on this side of the House to push for changes to the current budget. We still have more work ahead of us to ensure that the priorities of Regular MLAs are more clearly reflected in the budget but I am confident that working together we can reach a reasonable compromise and a better balance. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Members, we will take a short recess.

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Replies to budget address. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister of Justice confirm if there has been, throughout this pandemic, any measured rise in drug trade in the NWT and has it resulted in a corresponding increase in drug enforcement or staff? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So during 2020, we saw an increase in drug trade, and there's been a trend over the last number of years of increases in that trend. That being said, there are, you know, new resources in this proposed budget for the RCMP. There have been new RCMP in Hay River in the last few years, and we have more RCMP per person than anywhere else in Canada. We have twice as many RCMP per person as most places in Canada. So I'm not sure that the issue is something we can arrest our way out of, but we definitely have a significant amount of enforcement already in the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister confirm if the direction this government is taking to combat the drug trade in the NWT working; do we need to reevaluate the department's approach and the RCMP's approach? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If anyone's familiar with the war on drugs in the United States, I think they've spent about a trillion dollars over the past number of decades and they have more people incarcerated for, you know, possession of drugs than anywhere else in the world, and they still have problems. So if this is -- like I said, this isn't something we can arrest our way out of. Now that being said, the RCMP are well aware of the situation. I know a lot of people measure the success of the RCMP by, you know, the number of maybe drug dealers in their communities. But the fact is that if there's a drug dealer who's arrested and put away, there's going to be another one who takes their place because there is a market. If there is someone who wants to buy drugs, there's going to be someone to sell them those drugs. So the investments that we've seen, not just in the territory but around the world, that have made the most difference are investments in things like helping people who are vulnerable in overnight shelters, in, you know, providing services for people who, you know, might be addicted or at risk of being addicted. So those are the types of investments that we need to focus on. Enforcement is, of course, an important part but it really is those social aspects that we need to focus on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I talked to persons addicted to drugs, or those that are dealing for that matter, I let them know that I'm willing to work with them to help them move away from that lifestyle. I also let them know that not changing their lifestyle or dealing with the addiction problem would result in one of three things happening, which is being murdered, overdosing, or being incarcerated.

Can the Minister tell me what emphasis is placed on education by law enforcement to convince people that selling drugs in the NWT is not a career path? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I don't have examples of, you know, RCMP giving talks in the schools but the RCMP does do a lot of community outreach. It's a little more prevalent I think in smaller communities where they have more opportunity to have the -- those one-on-ones. But I think that it should almost go without saying that it's not a great career, being a drug dealer. And it's not just the RCMP's job to instill that in people. Everyone needs to do that. And so in the education system, we can't just say don't be a drug dealer. We need to say here are some alternatives, these are things you can do. It's one thing to just say no, it's another thing and more successful if you give someone an alternative. So we are working on that as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community and residents of Hay River are very concerned with the events over the last several months that resulted in a number of overdoses and alleged drug offences. It has become a crisis.

Can the Minister confirm that he is willing to have his department set up a meeting with the RCMP, Town of Hay River, and NGOs, to discuss solutions to address the issue of the drug trade? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I was just on the phone with the mayor today of Hay River to talk about such a meeting where we bring together those organizations, and I'm happy to do that.

As well as MLA, I've had constituents reach out to me in Hay River, and they would like to have a public meeting with the RCMP so that they can ask questions. A lot of people wonder, you know, I know that there's a drug dealer in this house, why haven't you arrested them. And sometimes there's some valid reasons and we need to have that dialog. We need the public to know what the RCMP is doing so that they can support them. This is a community issue. It's not an enforcement issue. It's not an education issue. It's a community issue. And so we need the community to sit down together and start an open dialog. And so as MLA, I've invited the sergeant, and whoever he would like to bring, to a constituency meeting and he's open to that as well. So in the coming weeks, perhaps after this session, we can set something like that up in addition to getting all of the community groups together, like the town, like the RCMP, in trying to figure out a path forward as well. So yes, we are working on this on a number of different levels. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for the Status of Women.

What are the laws in the NWT that help to protect our residents against cyber sexual assault? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for the Status of Women.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the main provision of laws would be under the Criminal Code, and so there's quite a number obviously of potential areas where, depending on the nature of the events, someone who is a victim, or believes themselves to be a victim, could certainly go to the RCMP to take that route if they choose to, and anything ranging from harassment to threatening behavior to invitation to sexual behaviours, child pornography for another one, for instance. So there's quite a number of potentials, and it would certainly depend on each instance.

That, of course, is assuming that an individual wants to go the route of reporting to the RCMP, which certainly not every victim may want to do so, in which case there may in some circumstances be civil actions that an individual can take. At that point, Mr. Speaker, they may be well placed to reach out to an advocate like the Status of Women who I know can help connect people to the right tools depending on what they need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for that response, as she is not the Minister of Justice so I do appreciate that her background does allow her to know those answers.

My next question is that the Status of Women Council has created a safety planning tool that can be found at SafePathwayNT.com for those experiencing sexual violence.

Can the Minister speak to what these tools are, how they were developed, and how will be they be distributed in order to reach all the vulnerable communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I became aware of the unfortunate incident, the sexual violence that my colleague experienced. In doing so, I went myself to the Status of Women's page. I appreciate the plug that we've just had. They do have an incredible resource on there, quite innovative, that is trying to take a different way of looking at how women -- too often women, but anyone would be able to safety plan.

That information is only just starting to come out. In fact, having followed up I'm aware that they're putting packages together for MLAs right now, and we'll certainly be undertaking to circulate that to all colleagues here so that we can get it out to residents and information will be sent to all 33 communities, both in print form but then also -- I will also follow up and make sure that we're utilizing any and all other channels that we can use, Facebook and social media for instance, so that we can get that information out so that -- given that safety planning, unfortunately, remains a reality, that we can get information about how to do that out there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, risk factors that increase the risk of experiencing sexual violence in Canada include being a young woman or girl living in a remote or northern community, being Indigenous, an immigrant, or black, being disabled, or identifying as gender diverse or 2SLGBTQ+.

How is the work being done by the status of women being -- sorry, executed in order to specifically reach or help the most at risk? What accommodations are being made or steps being taken to protect those at risk given the small town nature of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, while I'm responsible in name for the status of women file, I'm not directly responsible for the functioning of the Council for Status of Women. But -- and I know that they are doing a number of initiatives and I'm -- you know, certainly will take whatever opportunity I can to table documents here to let people know the work they're doing.

In terms of the GNWT's work, I can say, Mr. Speaker, that we are an active member at a federal-provincial-territorial table looking at a national action plan for gender-based violence, and part of our role on that table is to call attention to the fact that there are certain risk factors that, frankly, do attach to so many individuals in the North at a much higher rate as already detailed here by the MLA, MLA Nokleby. So quite well aware that those are realities. They are reflected, as I say, when we advocate on a national level, because bringing that attention will hopefully bring not only attention but more funding to attach to those specific groups of individuals who are at greater risk. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I have been using my questions to sneak in a few more stats. So sexual violence is very underreported. Only five percent of sexual assaults are reported. Last year, I spoke about Clare's Law.

Is the NWT any closer to adopting this law to protect Northerners against intimate partner violence? Has there been any progress regarding GNWT process or procedures to ensure greater safety for our people dealing with sexual assault and violence? And I do recognize that's probably just a lot of the same responses as my last question. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is one where I think both my colleague, Minister of Justice, and I would have some relevance just to speak to this issue.

From the perspective on the status of women, we certainly are following and monitoring what's happening with Clare's Law. This is -- it's a piece of legislation that would allow police to disclose someone's -- if an individual has prior intimate partner violence in their history, in their past, then they could certainly disclose that to a new partner or to a third party, like a parent for example. So that's happened in some jurisdictions in Canada, not all, and there are some concerns, or at least unawareness right now, as to whether that would be as effective in a jurisdiction that is smaller where communities are much more interconnected and where the realities of violence may well be very normalized in those communities and what the reactions then would be and whether that would actually produce more safety or not. So again, I can say that the status of women file, we are following it, we're looking at what's happening elsewhere and wanting to see its effectiveness and if this is something that brings -- that has attention in the Northwest Territories it may well come then to my colleague, the Minister of Justice, to consider from that perspective. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.