Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. At this time, I will ask the committee if they have any general comments on the Department of Finance estimates. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Bill 1, Appropriation Act, 2004-2005, and would like to report progress and, Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

What is the wish of the committee? We have Bill 1 before us today. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad to hear that because that was one question I was going to ask. I was going to ask what kind of a timetable, because, as I said at the beginning of my preamble on my first question, time is of the essence. So we need to move on this fairly quickly, and we need to be very proactive. I don't think the Premier's reference to a department of which he didn't know the name in RWED is really that visible a source of support or information for communities and other governments. So I want to know what the plan is to raise the visibility of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Premier provided the right answer today when asked by the Member for the Sahtu whether or not this government is prepared to, in correspondence with the federal government's initiative, form some kind of a committee with a mandate to oversee some of the issues related to the pipeline. I think that time is of the essence on this. There are lots of communities that are waiting with a great deal of anticipation to learn how they can plug in and benefit from a lot of different benefits which may accrue to northerners as a result of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I just want to confirm that when some corporations filed their tax returns in the Northwest Territories and paid taxes to our jurisdiction, some of those were received while our corporate tax rate was 14 percent. So what would have been the incentive or motivation for those companies to file with us at 14 percent if Alberta was sitting at 12.5 percent? What would have attracted those and how could we encourage more of that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in reference to the budget address today, I have a question for the Minister of Finance. On page 14 it says effective January 1, 2004, we will be increasing the corporate income tax rate from 12 percent to 14 percent. It goes on to say -- and this is something that is complicated I know, but I wanted to make note of it -- as a result of rebasing the tax effort adjustment factor in the new formula financing agreement, the GNWT would actually lose revenues if we attract investments at the current corporate income tax rate. So we have gone from 12 percent...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had a text all prepared here with a wonderful Member’s statement, but I think I’d just like to off-the-cuff, briefly comment on the situation as outlined in the budget today by our Finance Minister.

I guess Mr. Ramsay has referred to the pace at which we spent money in the previous Assembly and to some extent I agree with that. Our current Finance Minister, who was not the Finance Minister in the last government, used to stand up in this House on a very regular basis and talk about the debt wall. Sometimes when we were in committee meetings and planning...

The motion is in order. It is not debatable. All those in favour of the motion to report progress? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Thank you. I will now rise and report progress.