Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated earlier, the work that has been done hasn't given us enough information right now if we should, in fact, look at splitting the act and look at one, for example, truly on the business side of the liquor equation, or if it continued along the same lines with some strengthening of areas and updating of the old legislation that is there today. We are in that process. The first phase, in a sense, has been done with the contract that was let and a report that is coming forward. It is actually in draft stage now, I believe, in the final stages. From a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure if that would require two acts to do what is being done presently through the example used of Health and Social Services. We do have, through Health and Social Services, a drug and alcohol program. On the finance side, the sales side and the taxes received through the sale of tobacco comes through the Department of Finance. There could be work, and I think the Member may be heading to this; the fact that we do have some issues that have caused us some concern and we recognize that. It's in the jurisdiction that the Liquor Board does have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some work has been done by a company that was contracted by the Department of Finance to begin the process of looking at what can be undertaken in a review. We have yet to make a decision if it will be a full-blown review or if we would look at segments of it, but we are still in that process. We should be making a decision soon as to what degree we will go. If we, for example, put a panel together to look at all the issues and make recommendations on what avenue we should take, or if we would just use our normal process of getting some input and then...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we went through this process and committee Members saw the draft mains, comments that were said about what we should look at for saving money and saving initiatives, cost-saving measures that were said through the committee process have been taken and will be looked at as we step forward. As now Members are aware of certain areas we should look at, Members suggested, for example, Mr. Speaker, a zero-based budgeting exercise. I think as a government we should seriously look at using that as an exercise as we develop the next budget process. So there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our consensus style of government allows Members more than any other jurisdiction to be involved in the development of the budget. For example, we sat down as 19 Members and discussed what fiscal strategy we would use, and going forward on that, we started building the budget. We know that our timeline was very tight, but coming forward to the next system, Members will be directly involved in the business planning process from that three-year business plan process. We will then take the comments of Members and develop a draft main estimates. Then again...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through this whole process -- and the media term as to the harshness of the rulings that were made -- I’ve stayed out of the picture, because they are a quasi-judicial board told to do things. They have an act to follow. They’ve done that and I haven’t interfered with that process. I did state, when I met with the Liquor Licensing Board, that if there were concerns to please work through me and I will initiate a process. If there are concerns around enforcement, I will work with the Minister of Justice to try and do that. Is there an education factor? I will work with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think in responding to that question we should look at more than just one very small section of what was stated in that ruling. In fact, there’s an area that refers to the enactment of the Liquor Act as an exercise of the legislature of its authority to make laws in relation to property and civil rights and also in relation to intoxicants. There are a number of factors there. By the language of the act in section 6(2) and section 13 in particular, the legislature intended to give broad discretion to the Liquor Licensing Board, section 6.2(2) subject to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 3, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, No. 2, be read for the third time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that Bill 6, an Act to Amend the Payroll Tax Act, 1993 and the Income Tax Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill would amend the Payroll Tax Act, 1993 to increase the rate of the payroll tax. The bill would also amend the Income Tax Act. Alternative versions of the amendments to the Income Tax Act are included because Bill 3, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, No. 2, also amends the provisions of the Income Tax Act relating to individual income tax. Both versions of the amendments would amend...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we should also say that Members are involved in, for example, setting the priorities of this government, what are high priorities. So it is not all about cutting, we are still spending $1 billion in the Northwest Territories. So it is how we spend that billion dollars, what are the high priorities of this Assembly, and we will take those and look at areas of lower priority and do some shuffling of the deck. That will include involvement from Members, we need that input. We have heard comments already on some of the areas of importance here. A...