Bill Braden

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One more point. Is this going to be the last of the adjustments to fiscal 2003-04, or is it possible that we should anticipate yet another adjustment, another supp to the fiscal year that's closing out? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One question I think that's fairly brief. The Minister advises that we're going to be exceeding with this supp, the 2003-04 supplementary reserve, and as a result the operating result will be impacted by the million dollar difference. For the record, could the Minister advise what is the normal amount that we would start out with as a reserve? What has caused us to use it all up and, in fact, exceed it? Will the $50 million adjustment that we've just found out about actually change anything in the operating results? Thank you. I would appreciate some...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can’t speak in favour of this. I am satisfied that the information presented to us justifies that 14 percent is a realistic tax level, and that the increase of two percent is not excessive. I guess what convinces me of this is that if we go from 12 to 13 percent we are just sort of tweaking and tinkering here, we are not giving ourselves the margin that I would be satisfied with to know that we are not going to continue to be in a negative revenue situation. I think 14 percent is realistic because it gives us a buffer. That being said, that is my comment. Thank...

How many corporations do we anticipate will be captured in this as large corporate taxpayers? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, my question this afternoon is for Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. It relates to the imminent creation of the NWT council of sport and recreation partners. Could the Minister advise what are the issues and problems that are going to be resolved with the creation of this new sport governing body in the NWT? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can’t speak in favour of this motion. I guess where I am coming from on this is if we, as a government, and then through our various departments and agencies, have a reasonably good policy on travel, and if we go about passing our business plans and giving these people instruction and direction to go do a job on our behalf, then I think along with that comes sort of a degree of trust and integrity in their ability to make prudent decisions about where we are going to travel, and follow the policies that have been set under which they will do that. I think this...

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to get on public record how we go about setting that up. At least with that information, perhaps it will clarify things. I think we do take reasonable steps to set that allowance. The other area I wanted to go into was the cultural enhancement strategy. I was at the public Board of Management meeting a couple of weeks ago when this strategy was put before the board. My perception of the meeting, Mr. Chairman, was a strategy which was commissioned by the last Assembly and just now completed, was accepted by the Board of Management. The Speaker has...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to comment and ask a question about the policy of the Board of Management, which of course the Speaker is reporting on behalf of, and it concerns something that I’ve had some feedback on from constituents. It’s about the housing allowance policy that is in place to provide those MLAs who don’t live in Yellowknife adequate resources to set up in effect what amounts to a second household for them. Understandably there are costs incurred for them and the Assembly quite rightly has a responsibility to provide that. The cost of rental housing in this city has been...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So a case-by-case basis. You know, overall, there’s a lot of case-by-case, one-at-a-time, we’ll think about it kind of approach. I would like to know in the area of consultation and communication, which is such a big part of the environment we work in, is the government looking at adopting a formal consultation policy so that everyone knows what the parameters and the thresholds and the ground rules could be? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.