Floyd Roland

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, the Member stated a number of correct and obvious things that we, as a government, face on a daily basis as a result of liquor in the Northwest Territories. Even though we do have the ability to restrict liquor in communities -- there are some communities that are dry and don’t allow any alcohol -- that still doesn’t prevent individuals from finding a way to bring the product in to the communities and sometimes at great risk. They will travel many miles by boat or snow machine to find the product and bring it back into their communities, so they can have access...

Is the Member looking for prior year increases in taxes? This budget, 2004-05, doesn’t show any increase for increase in taxes. It only shows increase in volume sales as well as the cost of product. Previous years, is that what the Member is looking for?

Thank you, Madam Chair. In the area of formula financing, that is something that is critical to our government in trying to come up with new revenues that we have put forward. Specifically on the five percent reduction area, I believe we have a very good business case. I have had a discussion with the federal Finance Minister on this area. He’s told me two things that he is not going to stray from; one is he will not bring in a deficit and, two, he will treat everybody equitably.

For me, there are a few messages that aren’t so positive; one, we are running a deficit and, two, equity is a...

Madam Chair, to my right is the deputy minister of the Department of Finance, Ms. Margaret Melhorn, and to my left is Mr. Mel Enge, director, finance and administration.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s a combination, one of the increased sales amount and the increase of the product itself. This budget doesn’t identify increased mark-ups by our government. So the reasons for the increase shown here are volume sales, as well as increased costs of the product from suppliers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The first one, finalizing discussions with Finance Canada on our formula financing agreement, that’s strictly with ourselves right now, the GNWT with the federal government. There have been some discussions with aboriginal governments saying they would like to be involved in the process. Finance Canada is not willing to have that approach taken, so we have continued as a territorial government to take that on as our own initiative as it results in the transfers to this government to operate existing programs and services.

Providing taxation and formula financing input...

Madam Chair, I am pleased to introduce the main estimates for the Department of Finance for the 2004-2005 fiscal year.

The 2004-2005 main estimates for the Department of Finance request a total expenditure budget of $7.354 million. The department’s 2004-05 expenditure requirements are 30.1 percent, or $3.167 million less than in 2003-2004. The net decrease is a result of:

1)

reduced insurance premium costs of $1.624 million resulting from the government’s self-insurance initiative, implemented last year;

2)

implementation of the loss prevention and risk control program associated with the self...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I do have that information. Under fiscal policy, travel and transportation, 2004-05 is $52,000; materials and supplies, $16,000; purchased services is $14,000; contract services, $55,000; fees and payments, $2,000; computers, hardware and software, $8,000.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Before I get into that specific issue, there were a number of comments the Member made about our revenue-generating initiatives. Yes, they are difficult and nobody likes the idea of increased taxes or new taxes, but if we don’t get it from the corporate citizens of the NWT or Canada, then we end up focussing on the private individual which would be much more difficult.

The fact is the federal government measures our tax effort and because we are not measuring up to what they think we can generate for revenue in the Northwest Territories, we are penalized on that. So...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, my understanding of the process is we offer contracts to depots for that operation, but then they also receive the bottles and can pay out the fees that they would earn from those collections. They collect the bottles, get a fee at the local depot, and then would pay the group that brought that forward and then would send their product on. Again, through our organization, they would get some funding for that. Thank you.