Floyd Roland

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...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, as we mentioned earlier in the year on educational awareness on some of the activities, the Liquor Licensing Board is where this would fall under now. The Liquor Commission doesn’t have a very big education role in a sense of what happens. It is something we could look at and look at how some of these things should flow. As we go forward, should we be as a government overall, or should it be within the Liquor Commission and start reviewing that as to how do we further educate or provide information out there? But the roles right now are very limited in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, what I have laid out in my opening remarks is the transfer of liability coverage from the health board authorities to the government policy. That is a change that would see an overall savings for the boards. In the other matter of insurance and liability for non-government organizations, for the most part our policy doesn’t include non-government organizations. There may be a couple of exceptions, but I am aware…For example, the example that Ms. Lee has used in the area of shelters; the government funds, through it’s contribution agreements to non...