Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of issues that would come up just sitting here thinking about it. So instead of getting into that detail in this forum and possibly making some errors in the response, what I would suggest is that I know there’s been ongoing discussions and we’ve had some meetings in the past, I will direct people from within our payroll systems to meet with the agency and try to come up with something that’s appropriate. Part of it could be, as I said, simply a matter of knowing in advance who is going to be working for what time period and that would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we start branching into the area of contracts, that brings a whole new set of rules on its own. Part of the issue is that we had to go down this path of going onto one payroll system is that departments, boards and agencies had too many different systems out there causing a lot of grief for those that would get payroll and then have some changes that needed to be made. We had to go back after the fact. I think there is an opportunity here. If we can work out an arrangement with the Tlicho agency on the timing of when individuals come in, if we had...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the problem arises when we have an individual or, in this case, elders who would come to work for a school board or an agency and they would only come as and when, once every few weeks, once a month or maybe even less than that, depending on what information they were going to provide. That is a difficult portion because our systems right now, as we run our payroll system, do not adequately address that. That is an issue. We have been trying to work with Education around this area to accommodate the request. Part of the problem, as we work our system...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue has arisen as a result of the payroll systems being amalgamated where we would use one system of pay. Previously, boards and agencies outside our system or who had their own systems would cut off-cycle cheques. Since being requested to be incorporated in our payroll system, this issue has arisen. We have been working together with Education, trying to come up with another form of off-cycle cheques being issued. Part of the problem is that we need to try to shorten that timeline. Right now, they have fallen into the casual payroll system. To...

Mr. Speaker, energy costs are a concern to all of us. The Department of Public Works and Services has an opportunity to test a cheaper alternative energy source this coming year at the North Slave Correctional Centre.

Public Works and Services and the Department of Justice recently received a proposal from a Yellowknife-based company, Arctic Green Energy, to provide a wood pellet boiler system at the North Slave Correctional Centre.

Providing heat for buildings using wood pellet boilers has been common practice in Europe for decades, with systems reliably heating numerous facilities such as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we’ll get those numbers. Right now my understanding from the estimates I have is the Alberta government’s small business tax rate is three percent. We’re at four percent. So we’ll provide that information.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the way our tax system works, all corporations in the Northwest Territories are eligible for the small business tax rate up to $300,000. In this case, now up to $400,000. So we’d have to provide information on all corporations in the Northwest Territories, not just those that had less income and only qualified for the small tax rate. We could maybe sit down with the Member and try to get more specific to what questions or answers she’d like to see in that area instead of providing a whole slew of information that might not be too useful. I’ll gladly sit...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Should I just say yes, I understood the question and go from there? The fact is, yes, we do recognize the impacts of the high cost of living on the Northwest Territories small businesses. That is why there has been a steady trend since the 1990s when the small business tax rate was in fact in the area of 10 percent and the last reduction I believe happened in 2003 when we reduced it from five to four percent. With the changes in the federal government, there will be an impact to this government’s revenues because of the amount of tax applied to the small business. The...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the area of finance, every year when we prepare our business plans we look at our options, all our tax rates, whether in fact the requirement for spending by this Assembly drives up the requirement for more cash, we would look at revenue opportunities as well as our competitive situation in the sense of possibly reducing our tax situation. The small business rate we have in the Northwest Territories, in fact, when we look at other jurisdictions and we do a comparison, is one of the lowest in Canada. Alberta government is in fact lower than us, yes, but...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a government we’re always willing to look at suggestions of possibilities here and I would hope that when we bring forward the employment equity policy here for discussion with Members, that we will have a good dialogue on what options are out there and opportunities that we can improve on our hiring practices as a government. So, yes, we’re willing to look and sit down and discuss what options we might be able to implement as we move forward.

The other issue is, just for the record, Mr. Speaker, when we use direct appointments as a way of putting people...