Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as we go through this exercise and go through what would be the normal process, departments begin their budget process in June preparing for the business plan presentation to committees in September. At that time there will be much more detail involved. There will be a lot of information provided that normally doesn’t show up in the main estimates document. We can definitely include more information in the business plan process. It is a lot of information. There would be a lot more paper and to what detail do we want to get down to. I’m committed, as we...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We do have more information on bottle deposits in the NWT, and we can provide that hard copy to Members or I can read it off.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the power subsidy program has increased dramatically and, as we have highlighted, has grown over the years. A large part of that is the actual rates themselves have jumped significantly in a number of communities. For example, if you look at 1998-1999, the community of Lutselk'e used to pay 39.3995 cents per kilowatt hour. It is now at 73 cents per kilowatt hour. We have examples of that. The community of Rae Lakes in 1998-99 was 44 cents and is now up to over $1 a kilowatt hour. So a lot of the drive in that is the rate changes that have happened...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The number we are establishing right now is for current year and there could be slight changes as the taxation assessment role changes. So if there are new properties put on, for example, if more lot development takes place and houses are built in tax-based communities, that would show the growth in that area as well as any small changes in how the assessments are done in the value of properties, but it is forecast to go up by a small amount going forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had to ask what the other expenses were, as well. They are for the TSC and the systems and communications chargeback. So these are chargeback amounts for systems and communications, as well as the TSC services for the whole department.

As well, taking the Member's comments and concerns of how we can better coordinate the delivery of the budget process being more informed, in that I’d be happy to sit down with Members and see how we can improve on the delivery of this information. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My understanding is they are getting information on the other income portion, the $180,000 for 2004-05 and what that was made up of. I believe we did provide some information on the Liquor Licensing Board revenue of $632,000. So can we have some clarification on which area?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think most importantly that we should state that we are going to be using the work that has been done in the past as a starting point and moving forward with that. We don’t see a need to get into a lot more review in a sense of beginning something new and trying to get more information, we feel we have a lot of information. Then, of course, we would be working with the Members of this Assembly, with AOC, as we go through the steps moving forward to ensure that we are on the right track and working along with them to develop a program that would be beneficial for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The reason that jumps up is assessments are done and incorporated, so there will be some increases just due to the normal assessments that are done. The reason there is such a large jump in this one is we have also done assessments on property taxes or properties to do with the large industry out there right now. That’s why it’s such a large jump. The vast majority of that is the exercise of now doing assessments for mines and other large developments and that’s the income on the property tax side.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d just like to thank the Member for bringing his concerns to us and I look forward to working with him and providing a level of service that’s adequate to the residents in his jurisdiction, as well as being effective as a government on how we spend those dollars on behalf of the people. We’ll continue to monitor and work with the federal government, as well as with our own partners here in the Northwest Territories. If we can work together, I’m sure we can build a solid case going forward to try and have the idea of capacity on those issues dealt with by the federal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, they do apply to us. Thank you.