Bill Braden

Okay. That opens up a number of areas, but they are probably more hypothetical and what I should do is wait until the strategy is brought forward, and then engage in that funding question. So that's all I have, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Okay. So if we had the money, we would do it right away. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On the revenue side of taxation, I would just like some clarification. Do the numbers posted here reflect the increases that would come, pending approval of the taxation measures that the Minister has proposed? Are those numbers reflected in the projection here? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a pleasure today to recognize four constituents that I know in the Assembly today; of course, Ms. Nancy Trotter; Paul Christopher of the NWT Wrestling Federation; my constituency assistant, Mr. John Argue; and, our royalty in waiting, Mr. Speaker, Mildred Wilke. Thank you.

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Thank you. That helps answer a question there, that we have made at least a technical decision. Okay, everything is going up in cost. As we continue to delay or defer this, the sense that I have is that this is not really an option for us. We're going to have to bite the bullet on this. For every year that we put this off, Mr. Chairman, how much more is it costing us? What's the inflation rate on this stuff? Are we unnecessarily deferring or delaying this necessary decision? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of areas of detailed enquiry, but I will save them until we get to the appropriate part in the budget, Mr. Chairman. I did want to ask though of a reference the Minister made in his opening comments to continuing to invest in some software upgrades to our existing financial information system to keep it functional while a decision regarding its replacement is pending. We're going to spend almost $200,000 on these interim software upgrades, Mr. Chairman.

It's something that I know came before committee, I think in at least the last two years of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, I referred to a study on the national child benefit supplement, and I would like to table the document this morning offered by Alternatives North called “Stop the NWT Clawback of the National Child Tax Benefit Supplement.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Speaker. During the Arctic Winter Games in Fort McMurray two weeks ago, I was proud to accept the invitation of the Honourable Henry Zoe to help represent the NWT and this Assembly. The three days that I spent there were actually the sixth chance that I've had to be at an Arctic Winter Games, Mr. Speaker; three times as a reporter; twice as a volunteer; and this time as a representative of this government. That goes back to the very first time the games were staged here in Yellowknife 34 years ago.

I was impressed, Mr. Speaker, not only with the calibre of our...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I won’t belabour the results, but at least we have something we can move forward on now. So that we can avoid this in the future, Mr. Chairman, have we talked to the folks at either the census office or Revenue Canada to see if we can sort out the criteria for this, so that we don’t have these arguments about whether or not a community was counted accurately? This was a real frustration for us in the last government, Mr. Chairman. I think it caused us at least a year if not two of uncertainty in our financing situation with Ottawa. It was several millions of dollars...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that within the bounds of the Liquor Act, as we know it, it is set up as a piece of business, administration law and, to some degree, covers control and enforcement. But in the course of reviewing a number of the departments in the social envelope leading up to this budget, Madam Chair, it just gets reinforced that liquor plays such a large part in the damage and the violence, abuse, and the unnecessary hurt and death that occurs in the NWT. We hear indications from our medical professionals, from our justice professionals, from our mental health and...