Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to present the Department of Finance's main estimates for the fiscal year 2005-2006.

The Department of Finance, through its responsibilities for revenue generation and management, and information gathering and distribution, plays an important role in ensuring the government is able to deliver its programs and to make informed decisions.

For 2005-06, the Department of Finance has identified a total expenditure budget of $7.9 million, or 7.4 percent more than in the 2004-05 main estimates. The increase is composed of:

$530,000 for increased insurance costs resulting...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, it’s a process that they’ve used and in our situation we would consider it, as probably every other jurisdiction, an improved estimation of where the corporate income tax would be for the fiscal year we would be in. Again, as the numbers become solidified as we actually get to count the returns that have been filed and so on, there could be further adjustments, but this is based on estimations that are made using the new way the federal government is doing it, which has changed our revised estimates. We are hoping that it continues to go forward. The...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in the area of the payroll tax, we work with at least one other organization and that is the one that would register companies. We work with the WCB to see how many employers there are in the Northwest Territories, because that is who registers companies.

The Member has also touched on a couple of cases. We have had a number of scenarios that have developed in the North around the collection of taxes overall. There was a case that was going before the courts around the jurisdiction of taxation with governments in general; not just the Government of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled GNWT Business Plans, 2005-2008. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The 12 identified positions, including the casual, are ones for the support of the operation of the Liquor Commission. What is not included in that is the sales end of it, the warehousing and so on. That has all been privatized. So that’s where there are liquor outlets, contracts let out and they have their own staff through the contracts. We also have contract liquor inspectors who are in different communities and have been working to recruit more. There was some difficulty in having liquor inspectors in all the communities that have sales, but that is something we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess, number one, we’re hopeful and fairly confident that federal Finance will see what we are putting together as an appropriate one and they would endorse and work with us on that avenue. Looking at the picture, if things don’t change, then, yes, we are going to have to look at our fiscal strategy once again in how we would go forward to ensure we don’t go over our debt that we’re aware of and have to make some adjustments necessary. There are a couple options in that. One is working with federal Finance again about that repayment plan that they do have set up...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The reason it’s down is there has been a drop in liquor sales from what was estimated the previous year. There are a number of factors that play into that. One is as we’ve looked at it; there is a reduction in liquor sales in some of the establishments. So that is one of the areas that is causing that to drop, as well as we can say maybe some of the programs that are out there are starting to have some effect on the consumption. Right now we are seeing a drop in the sales and are going forward on that basis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as part of our program when you go through reduction scenarios, these savings are taken into consideration as we lower our budget numbers. For the 2003-04 year into the 2004-05 there was a reduction target set, as well as in this budget exercise we’re going through. So we don’t hang onto the money. What money we don’t use goes back into the consolidated revenue fund. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess, just to be clear, that the Alberta Liquor Commission -- and that comparison is being mentioned right now -- is different than the AADAC commission or the commission on alcohol and drug use in Alberta. As a government, we would have to look at what we need to do and commit to working with our partners as an overall government. What we have to show here on this page 3-31, when you look at the surplus that comes out of the liquor revolving fund, that goes directly into the consolidated revenue fund. So this fund does not stay there and continue to grow. It...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman as the Department of Finance looked at the cost for insurance and providing the level of coverage that we initially put in place, in 2003 an actuarial report was done to look at the cost-benefit analysis of providing the existing level of services that was there. It was felt at that time and the numbers that we had run through, affirmed that, in fact, changing the way we did our insurance and increasing the deductible would make sense. A part of that was also developing the risk loss management side of things and to ensure that while we were making this...