Bob Bromley

Given that we’ve got 34 days left before this office would take over this responsibility, is there an interim plan? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Really, I just wanted to say I’m happy to see the continuation and, in some cases, expansions in some of the support here, specifically that Tourism Diversification Program. I think we’re having some successes in that area and I’d welcome any evaluation that the department has done on the support provided to date.

I think the sport hunt outfitter and marketing support, I’m assuming this is support to help keep some of the outfitters alive over time, a rough period in our history here and I appreciate the continuation of that.

Finally, the little bump-up there, recognition...

I know we’re collecting $10,000 in fees from the petroleum industry here, an amazingly small amount. At the same time, I suppose we’re now proposing to subsidize this same industry, the richest corporations in the world, with millions of taxpayer dollars from GNWT funds. That’s just an observation.

Thanks for that additional information. I recall in the 16th Assembly we had a similar sort of thing. Now, we may not have had the number of taxpayers go down, and it sounds like that’s part of what’s happening here. But we certainly did have that same sort of proportionate decrease. I believe it was in, actually, corporate income tax if I remember rightly. Are there further adjustments that will be made to these numbers? Is this just the update and we can expect more updates?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I lied. I found, in the fine print, one more question.

The last few words on the page there, “the NWT electricity system analysis” is part of the energy budget here. At first blush, one might hope that we’re talking about smart read technology or smart meters, time of day pricing, hybridizing with renewables, things that would actually reduce the cost of living. But I understand, in retrospect, that in fact what we’re talking about is spending money on feasibility studies to connect the grids, especially with the southern grid so we can import dirty, coal-fired energy and...

Are those all within this $10,000 of revenue?

That’s obviously positive in the short term and negative in the long term since we know that our health costs are growing at, well, this year 8 percent, and that’s not atypical, but it certainly does serve to cushion the increase we see in our health budget this year.

Just looking at personal income tax, again I see a very significant increase there, and again, the Minister has been on about some serious differences there. Perhaps he’s projecting that for the next fiscal year.

Again, can I get an explanation there? I see we’ve dropped in our corporate income tax here a bit as that is what we do...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess this raises a few questions. I know in the long-term energy options for Inuvik, wind was actually identified as one of the best, possibly the best. What are our investments in that one? I believe it was the Storm Hills as a possibility and the Reindeer Hill as another possibility.

The Whati transmission line, I know the community is most interested in developing their own hydro locally, and perhaps that fits in with the long-term here, but we have had this amount allocated to this project study of the transmission line several times in the past and it’s come to not...

My understanding is that those dollars could be anywhere in this budget, in the expenditures in this budget. Is that correct?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d just like to start off here with the first line, the grant from Canada, $1.28 billion. What is the agreement going forward? I keep hearing how we’re sweating and the Minister says our population is declining; we’re losing our federal grant. It’s up considerably, I think about $90 million this year, despite our declining population.

So what’s the situation and how long is the agreement in place for and what trends can we expect to the extent that we know what’s happened? Thank you.