Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today we heard the announcement from the new Minister of Human Resources and I’d like to welcome him to the file. Clearly, this is a great announcement that we have here before us. I want to make sure, for the record, that it was a lot of pressure for this side of the House that has been applied as of late. Again, we had numerous numbers of fines, double fines, some of those fines to the tune of over three-quarters of a million dollars. We did talk about a lot of increased claims growth that the GNWT had. It was clear that we needed a definite change in direction to...

Mr. Speaker, it’s clearly unfortunate we’re not hearing answers here today.

Can the Minister reassure the public, given what I just quoted in the public accounts, that self-reporting of tobacco sold in the NWT is foolproof?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today, in my Member’s statement, I made reference to the fact this government has a potential open door, a loophole, if you will, in its tobacco tax collection process. Specifically, we have a process whereby we are relying on wholesalers based outside of the NWT to self-report on tobacco sold from their facilities to retailers within the NWT. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance.

Can the Minister clearly articulate why he continues to support the process of self-reporting on tobacco sold?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back in February 2012 I shared findings with this House, followed with a press conference that clearly demonstrated we were not collecting our fair share of taxes on tobacco products.

The Standing Committee on Government Operations was also interested in these findings, as was the Auditor General of Canada. Since then, the Department of Finance undertook a feasibility study to investigate such findings, with the hopes of better clarity on the collections and establishing some sort of tobacco commission in the Northwest Territories.

Now, unfortunately, I will not be able...

I appreciate the Minister’s commitment. I realize he’s brand new to the file here, so can I get the Minister’s commitment to the House that he will report our training progress annually with this new program and all our partnerships that are involved with our safety?

I think I know the answer to my question because I just did a little bit of research on our website. I think we had one. We had one member for almost 5,000 employees, which is kind of a paltry number, if I do say so.

With today’s announcement, how many more safety officers will the GNWT acquire?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s obvious, by our own public accounts, we have an issue, and it’s painfully clear today that the Minister is not answering the specific questions pertaining to the tobacco self-reporting. I agree that the Minister putting provinces’ stamps on tobacco does have merits in tax control, but it does nothing to address the self-reporting.

Will this Minister subject his tobacco tax collector process to the rigours of the Auditor General of Canada for review? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The half response or quasi attempt to answer the question leaves me and the public at the Minister’s mercy and convenience.

The recently tabled Interim Public Accounts for the Year Ended March 31, 2013, has tobacco tax collected in the main estimates at $17.326 million, yet the 2013 actual collected is reported at $15.587 million, a shortfall of $1.739 million.

Can the Minister explain this approximate $2 million in the shortfall? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to introduce to you and through you, as we heard earlier from the Minister, the Northern Safety Association. We have Mr. Chris Robb. We have Mr. Chris Johnston and, of course, Sarah Johnson here with us. We’ve got a lot of dignitaries here in the room, and I’d just like to welcome you back. And of course, as always, to have the Jacobson family in the House is always a pleasure.

I appreciate the Minister’s response. I agree; claims that we’ve had, claims growth that we’ve had and fines, like I said, well over three-quarters of a million dollars. Clearly, we had to take a new directional change in our department safety and our government safety.

With that, with this new initiative there has got to be some cost forecasts that were done by the government. Can the Minister say what will it cost for the implementation of this new direction in safety?