Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Tlicho agreement, number one, would have to be signed off and agreed to with the federal government. Once that is done, a number of things would happen and we are working already to ensure that when that timeline comes upon us we have agreements in place. There are discussions now on tax arrangements. Part of what would happen, and the scenario we see, is that we would…The federal government is involved in these discussions as giving tax room to the self-government group. Once they have that tax room from a GNWT perspective, we would see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the area of our tax bases, one thing, as I stated, is that we are in negotiations and discussions with aboriginal groups that are on the verge of having self-governments established in their jurisdictions. We are also discussing our tax-sharing arrangements and seeing how far we can do that. As a government, we are interested in hearing from the groups and Members of this Assembly to try and enhance our situation. A form of that can be tax incentives. If we can use tax incentives to increase and stimulate investment in the Northwest Territories that’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding from the work done on the federal budget is that $3.5 billion is over a 10-year period. Approximately 60 percent of that has been identified for the Northwest Territories. It will flow through the federal government. It is for the North. Let me correct that. It is for all of the North. So the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included in that, it’s not only for the Northwest Territories. We have, however, been highlighted in some of the detail, that whatever comes to the Northwest Territories will go towards the Giant Mine...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, taking the example the federal government has set, this government intends to be prudent with the money that we do have and not going forward with the rebasing exercise gives us a $50 million impact for the 2004-2005 year and will be put towards our deficit. That’s our intention with that money. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess first and foremost would be how the federal budget has impacted us positively and we can pass that on to our constituents. Number one, most critical is that I will not have to come back in the June session with a negative $10 million supp which would mean cuts to programs.

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Mr. Speaker, that's the most critical and most important this year.

Going forward on the rest of the federal initiative, the money that they have identified for immunization will help our Department of Health and Social Services ensure that they have this money and that they will be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday the Minister of Finance for Canada, the Honourable Ralph Goodale, tabled the 2004 federal budget. I am pleased to report that this budget contained some good new for the Northwest Territories.

Among the issues addressed in the budget were the territorial formula financing agreement, a northern strategy for economic development, northern oil and gas development and health care. Also, there are provisions in the budget for environmental cleanup of contaminated sites and seabed mapping of the continental shelf. Although more detail is required on some of these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the correspondence I received from the federal Finance Minister, Minister Goodale, he states it is a one-year break. The rebasing exercise will not happen for 2004-05, and there is direction that we have our people get together and work out the tax effort portion of what we would say is rebasing. We will have that in place by 2005-06. So it is a one-year break and that is why we have the $50 million for this year that would have been taken out, and we’d already built our budgets around that money being taken out. So he has given us one year to get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the territorial formula financing side, of the amount that was identified, the Northwest Territories over the five-year period would see approximately $74 million. That, Mr. Speaker, is already built into our budget estimates and forecasting, and we are still falling short. For example, the other one of $90 million over five years, split, if you use the existing formulas that have been in place, we might see $6 million a year coming North, not through the GNWT but through DIAND as we expect it will flow, and we are waiting to see the initiatives, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, part of what we are putting forward in this strategy that we have and balancing our budget is increasing our own revenues, taking into the scenario that there is going to be a growth and demand of services. As we argue right now, we are not able to keep up with what we have, we are not able to keep up with the level of capital infrastructure that we should be putting into our communities and replacing existing facilities. We are not able to keep up with that because of our fiscal situation. So we have a long way to go before we can look at sunsetting...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the sustainability we have moved forward is something we have to deal with as a government, and have to deal with it within our existing envelope. There are ongoing discussions and will be ongoing discussions with the federal government around the adequacies of our formula tax effort, re-establishing our base. There are also discussions about royalty revenue sharing. That is an important picture, it is an important item, but right now as our strategy is laid out that is outside of what we can count on for funds in the Northwest Territories. We see it...