Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will be brief. This question was brought up in my general comments. Unfortunately, it didn’t get a response to this. There was a significant change in the amount of expenditures from what this process incurred back in the fall to what we see today. Again, without being able to table a number or share a number, that change is just over 2 percent. So there were significant changes in the amount of expenditure line in the Department of Finance in a very short period of time between what was discussed in committee and what was tabled here just recently.

Can the department...

I want to congratulate the department for finally realizing where I firmly believe there are issues with respect to our loophole in our taxation system, so I’m going to be looking with much anticipation of the results of that audit. Can the department indicate how the findings of this audit will be made to Members and how will the findings of this audit will be made public? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Aumond, Mr. Kalgutkar, welcome back to the House. With that, we’ll go to general comments. Mr. Yakeleya.

If I can be as bold as saying it may be routine for the government to do these types of transformations, this is not routine for well-established businesses, businesses that have been in business for not just a couple of years but for, in some cases, a decade or two. I just want to make sure there’s fairness built in, there’s transparency built in and there’s the ability that if there is a dispute that we do have the mechanisms and the measures in place that these businesses can and have access to other than an MLA knocking on the door of Finance.

I guess my last question is: Even though we don...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am encouraged with that response. I know I’ve asked that many times. I guess we’ll have it before the end of the 17th, which is better late than never. So, congratulations to the department for recognizing that opportunity, because Members have been asking for that for some time.

Last, Mr. Chair, with respect to this activity. The treasury division looks after the administration of all legislative tax programs and I guess to the question and, again, I do applaud the good work that has been done in terms of increasing the frequency of tax audits, especially on tobacco...

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. With that, does committee agree?

Because this is a completely different change of business model, should there be a dispute arising with respect to the transformation and change forthcoming to the businesses in question, does the government have any type of dispute system, third-party adjudicator or any type of arbitrator that would be used in the event that there is an issue in this transformation?

I appreciate the clarification on risk management, but the question still remains. In 2013-2014 we were at $2.218 million. We had $2.305 million in the main estimates of 2014 and zero increase in 2015-2016. As I said, we had a significant amount of infrastructure that hit our books, which means that in the last two years, no change. In fact, there’s only a change of $87,000 since 2013. I find that premium very weak, given the amount of infrastructure that this has assumed in liability. Can I get more clarification on that? Thank you.

Again, the confusion on this file in terms of when these are going to be activating from private to consignment. To my question which still remains, there is going to be a significant shift happening in September of 2015, in terms of the overall model, 50 percent of our population, 50 percent of our inventory goes from private to consignment. What will the department do in order to make this seamless so that they can at least communicate that change to Members?

Good afternoon, committee. I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. With that, we’ll continue with the Department of Finance, opening comments. Minister Miltenberger.