David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for that.

Another question that I do have — and it’s an issue that I’ve raised in the House — gets back to home heating fuel and the fact that the Government of Canada charges GST on home heating fuel. There’s an election going on right now, and I do believe that the Government of the Northwest Territories has to be working with their counterparts in Nunavut and the Yukon Territory to make the federal government understand that charging GST on home heating fuel in northern Canada is the wrong thing to do and that they should stop that practice immediately. That...

Mr. Speaker, I want to pick up on the questions I had earlier, but this time I’m going to ask the questions of the Minister of Finance.

The one thing I think residents here in the Northwest Territories have a difficult time with is that we ship our resources south — look at the Norman Wells Pipeline, the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project — and then they get trucked back to us, and our residents get charged exorbitant prices for the fuel once it gets back to the Northwest Territories. We have the resources here. That’s the thing I take issue with. I think we need to find a way and means to keep...

With winter coming I think it’s very important. I want to get a commitment today from the Minister that the government will engage the Competition Bureau of Canada to have a look at the price fixing that’s obviously going on here in Yellowknife and perhaps in other market communities in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of MACA, who is also the Minister responsible for consumer protection in the Northwest Territories.

I’ve been receiving a number of calls and complaints from residents about fuel pricing here in Yellowknife. I’m having trouble helping them or explaining to them how pricing is arrived at here in Yellowknife. I can’t explain it. World oil prices go down; prices in southern Canada go down corresponding to those world oil prices — in some cases just recently 12 to 15 cents a litre. But here in Yellowknife it takes a week or ten days...

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Minister of Finance, but I think if we’re going to have an overall view of everything, we need to have all of our cards on the table. Until the government goes out and does the analysis of our spending government-wide, we won’t be able to do that. Today we don’t know the value of the dollars we are spending. That type of analysis hasn’t been done. Until it’s done, I’m not sure what we’re going to gain by going through this process, or any other process for that matter, budget to budget, unless we get a handle on where we’re spending our money and how effective...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue with some questions for the Minister of Finance. It’s easy to be critical, but I think sometimes you also have to offer some suggestions. I’d like to ask the Minister if the government has ever entertained what it would mean to our population if we did away with the personal income tax here in the Northwest Territories. Instead of increasing it, what if we did away with it? What would that mean, and would they be able to deliver that type of analysis for our consideration?

Mr. Speaker, the next question I have for the Minister of Finance is: of the $135 million that was proposed to be reduced over two years, exactly where is the government in terms of finding that $135 million today?

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Finance.

It was a year ago today that Members were elected to the 16th Legislative Assembly, and shortly thereafter we got together as a group of 19 MLAs and went through a strategic planning exercise where we tried to map out a strategy for the next four years.

One of the main concerns during that meeting was the cost of living and how the government spent its money. Many Members, I remember, were asking for a zero based review and program evaluations, and here we are a year later. Earlier the government had committed to a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think the Minister is correct in what he’s saying, but I just have to say what we saw last budget session. That happened because of haphazard cost cutting measures government-wide. There was no rhyme or reason to what happened in February.

I’m saying something needs to happen so that level of analysis, the detailed information, does take place so we can all make decisions collectively. I just didn’t see that happening. When you just hand it over to your DMs and tell them to cut $6 million in this department, $7 million in that department, you’re just going to...