Bill Braden

Mr. Speaker, then to the business community doing business with this government, and we are a major part of the economy here, how then do I take that kind of an explanation and work it into my business plan so that I know that there’s going to be some consistency, some predictability, some stability to how I operate my business and how I do business with the GNWT? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am just trying to do the math quickly here. It looks like about 15 percent. Are we adding about 15 percent to the previous estimate?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for the Premier. They relate to the whole area of our government’s application of policy and the measures by which we apply that. It was interesting yesterday afternoon, Mr. Speaker, in response to a question from my colleague, Mr. Hawkins, that the Premier said the following, and I quote from the unedited Hansard, “Mr. Speaker, I have to say that policies are policies. They’re general directions and guidelines. They’re not one of the Ten Commandments. They’re not laws. There is room for some exception there where we can warrant it.” So I...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To this topic of the lawsuit, I appreciate that the matter is before the courts. The Minister indicated that this has been underway for more than four years now. Would he be prepared to advise committee of whether or not we are at all close to a resolution? Can we anticipate that we will be able to see this remedied or resolved in the near future? Thank you.

Okay. So we started with $15 million, we have now run over that. What were the principle drivers, Mr. Chairman? What caused us to use this $15 million reserve up in this past year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To the bill, I am speaking in favour of this bill, but like the one that we just passed, Mr. Chairman, with little enthusiasm, even less than the one before. The advantage of the benefits of this bill, which would obviously be for people in the higher earning brackets are quite real and quite tangible. This is much more of an initiative that we, as a government, are taking of our own volition. Part of what we see as an available opportunity to raise some more revenue, not a lot of revenue, but it is one that the Finance Minister obviously has enough conviction that...

That's all for now. I may have other questions later on but thank you, Madam Chair, that's all.

Thank you. So at four percent, and this is taxable income, this is not sales, this is after everything else if you have a so-called profit, and will be moving up to $300,000 at a four percent rate. How competitive is that four percent rate? I know this isn't to the bill, Madam Chair, but I would just like a bit of information. How does the NWT rack up at four percent for a small business tax rate? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a couple of comments and a question. I would start by saying that I'm speaking in favour of the bill. I think it's predictable, Madam Chair, that in the context of a tax bill I can't say that I'm speaking with enthusiasm, but as the Minister and his officials have explained to committee and in public forums in the last while, the circumstances around increasing the corporate tax rate is fairly straightforward. At least in part due to some of the factors outside of our control; what happens in other parts of Canada and as a consequence of the rather weird and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to follow through with a bit more detail on the beverage container recovery program. I am a big fan of it, but I would like to explore a few things that are put before us here. Ms. Lee has already asked about the administrator. I would just like to follow through with some of this other detail. For the $10,000 listed here, was public education material produced? Thank you.