Floyd Roland

Thank you, Madam Chair. The role Public Works and Services gets involved in is at the department level. When a client department, if it is Health and Social Services or Education, Culture and Employment become involved, we would work with them and provide the technical expertise in project management and design, and work with them to see what the requirements are in helping to establish the estimates that would be used and placed in the main estimates document as well. So there are a number of areas that we are involved with them, but it is mainly with departments and then as a contract is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member has raised this issue prior and referred to Bill C-48 and, as a result, I had asked for that information and we’d brought it to the department to have a look at the scenarios that could come out of it. The initial scenarios would cost the government in its revenue base. We’d have to see what kind of development could occur. As I stated, the exercise we’re going through and will continue to go through is that we don’t have enough revenue at this time to maintain the level of services and programs that are existing. We’re looking at options. If...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the present time, though many of the aboriginal groups now are working towards self-government status, they do not have the ability for tax regimes at this time. There are ongoing discussions with the Department of Finance in the area of tax sharing of when these self-government agreements come into effect. So for the time being, there’s not that avenue. As a government we’re looking at all the options we can put forward in securing enough revenue to provide programs and services for the residents of the Northwest Territories. So we will look at options...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a couple of points. One of the reasons we are facing our fiscal situation is that previous governments were given one-time earnings and so on, and spent that money on important issues across the North. But now we’re in a situation where we don’t have the money to keep on going. We’re putting this money towards the deficit.

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And that’s what it’s identified for, as I stated in my statement earlier today. The amount budgeted of the $525,000, that’s the impact we think we’ll get in the Northwest Territories as a result of the $400 million the Member...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost is the result of the exercise of not rebasing and that is $50 million. The biggest thing is keeping ourselves in a healthy state. So that's why we've identified this to go towards the deficit. We're not going to dig the hole that we're in any deeper.

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That will have positive spin-off effects going forward.

The other side of that is if we don't get the parties to the table to deal with royalty revenue sharing and get some real action happening around that table; as well, if the negotiations with federal Finance on the tax effort side do not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the amount identified for territorial formula financing will be in the area of $7.6 million for the 2004-2005 year and that is built into our estimates. In fact, even for 2005-2006, the $9.2 million, those numbers are already built into our forecast of what we were working with as a result of our meeting with the Finance Minister in February. The $50 million that I referred to is due to putting off the rebasing exercise on our tax effort for the 2004-2005 year, which gives us a one-year amount. That’s not new money. It would have been taken out. They’ve...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, without knowing if we are getting close to an agreement stage, I couldn’t tell you if we would benefit $1 million more, or $50 million more. We just know that the existing exercise is costing us $50 million a year ongoing if it doesn’t get fixed. We feel we have a good example that it is not working properly, and feel that the federal Department of Finance has recognized that. That is why he has agreed to forego the rebasing exercise for 2004-05. If I stood here today and said if it is $20 million, let’s match that in reductions. If it doesn’t happen...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know when I go south I think northern Canada is our territory, but as well we know when we meet with our federal colleagues they have northern jurisdictions as well. So it is difficult to pinpoint that, and as I said, we will have to wait to see what criteria is attached in those dollars and how they roll out in the North. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be glad to arrange with Members of this House meetings and trips into their communities to try to lay out what we have put in place, to explain the reasons why. There is a lot happening in this area and we need to get that across to Members and their constituents. When we took office and I took on this responsibility, it wasn’t my intention and a target that I would automatically go after taxes of our own people in the Northwest Territories.

The unfortunate reality is we have to come up with some new revenue to maintain the existing level of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct in a sense of how those royalty revenues would impact on transfers. The federal government would use that as an opportunity to drop the transfer payments, but at the same time, what we are trying to negotiate is a better deal where we would get to keep a larger portion before the federal government takes back from our transfers. So an actual incentive. Right now there is very little incentive to do any development in the Northwest Territories for, number one, any new revenues we get, we get a drop in transfer payments. That...