Jane Groenewegen

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. By striking out “89,752,000” and substituting “88,649,000” in the column entitled “Operations Excluding Amortization.”

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee would like to consider Tabled Document 37-16(2), the Main Estimates ’08–09, Volumes 1 and 2. Then we would like to go to Bill 8, the Appropriation Act, 2008–2009, then to the committee report on official languages, and then the rest, in order, as time permits today.

Mr. Speaker, after we charge employees in the Northwest Territories a 2 per cent payroll tax and then we give a rebate to people and we also pay for the administration of the tax, what do we end up netting from the payroll tax, approximately, in round figures?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier and relate to the issue of cost of living in the Northwest Territories. I know that perhaps we were a little critical about not enough revenue options in the budget, but we don’t want revenue options for this government that hit directly at the pocketbooks of Northerners. One thing that does that right now, which is on our books, is the payroll tax. During the election campaign — I haven’t had a chance to raise this in the House yet — I had a lot of people talk to me about that payroll tax, how it went from 1 per cent to 2 per cent...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Bill 8 has been in the works. This has been the budget session. We’ve been here for several weeks now. It’s been a long road on this budget. A budget in a year subsequent to an election is always a challenging one, because the normal cycle of the planning that goes into a budget is interrupted. There were days when it really taxed all of us and called for all of us to put our best efforts forward to arrive at something that we could support.

Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting third reading of Bill 8. I was one of the ones who did not support it at second reading. So that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that sub-clause 3(2) of Bill 8 be amended by striking out “$1,359,234,000” and substituting “$1,356,311,000.” Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the Schedule to Bill 8 be amended to:

decrease by $1,103,000 the appropriation amount set out in Part 1, item 7, “Justice,” by:

striking out “89,752,000” and substituting “88,649,000” in the column entitled “Operations Excluding Amortization,” and

striking out “91,976,000”, and substituting “90,873,000” in the column entitled “Appropriation by Item”;

decrease by $1,103,000 the amount set out in Part 1 as “Total Appropriation for Operations Expenditures,” by striking out “$1,216,972,000” and substituting “$1,215,869,000”;

decrease by $320,000 the appropriation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just in summary, then, and to be very specific: are we being told today that the Premier will look at a review of the payroll tax of 2 per cent?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In recent years the subject of sexual health has been a growing concern across the country and, in particular, in the Northwest Territories. Sexual health consists of many aspects of health care, covering both emotional and physical well-being. This topic ranges from the detection and management of sexually transmitted diseases to family planning and contraceptives, breast and cervical cancer screening and the assessment, treatment and counselling of sexual health care. High-risk behaviours also contribute to transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

Many of...

This is a really sizeable amount of money, $17 million. I want to know: are there any intermediate steps that would be taken when you’re heading down this path to a $17 million deficit, where at some point somebody might say, “We’re in trouble here” and take some intervention steps to do some analysis along the way as opposed to trying to sort this out afterward, this far into deficit? It just seems like it’s a little too much after the fact. Sometimes with health authority boards there has been a necessity in the past to step into the situation. The Minister will take on a role of appointing...