Joe Handley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, this is still on the radar screen. It’s still something we want to consider. But we need to determine what our fiscal situation will be as a government first through the financing formula and also through resource revenue sharing. Mr. Speaker, other jurisdictions, and we have looked across North America, in fact, I have, what other jurisdictions are doing to reduce the cost of living. Some Members have mentioned to me that in Alaska, for example, there is no Alaska income tax. There’s federal income tax, but no Alaska income tax, and that’s true in some other...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize two constituents, James and Sheila Anderson from Weledeh, who are hosting…

---Applause

one of the AFS exchange students, Ms. Phee Sunantarod. Thank you.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, I am meeting on at least three occasions with the other Premiers across Canada over the next three months or so. During that time I will raise this one again, but I must say that we have talked about it and we do want to move aggressively in getting the federal government to respond to the expert panel reports that have been out and ask them to deal with that quickly. We are looking at trying to resolve that one by this fall and hopefully then have a better idea of what kind of breaks we can afford to give to our residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The answer is yes, I have discussed this with my northern counterparts and with some of the provincial Premiers, and the Member is correct that this is a national program. It would mean having to make changes not just in the northern zone, but in what we call the intermediate zone, as well. Mr. Speaker, in looking at this with the Premiers from the Yukon and Nunavut, it was our decision to put this one on the back burner until we had made more progress through the expert panel on our territorial financing formula and also on resource revenue sharing. Mr. Speaker, the...

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take this opportunity to highlight a number of important initiatives undertaken by this government over the past year. I also want to bring Members up to date on an important national initiative that will be a large focus of our work over the remaining seventeen months of our mandate.

First, I would ask all Members of this Legislative Assembly to join me in recognizing and thanking the people and community of Inuvik, along with all the volunteers, emergency personnel, GNWT staff and others who assisted the people of Aklavik during the recent flood in that community...

Mr. Speaker, I assure all the Members in this House that we are going to continue to work in cooperation with all of the Premiers. We met last week in Gimli. We did talk generally about this. This is the expert panel report. The Premiers all assured myself and the other northern Premiers that they are 100 percent on side with us. We are meeting again on Thursday. We will be talking about the territorial report as well as the provincial report dealing with equalization. We have full agreement that they are 100 percent behind us, that our situation is unique, that we shouldn’t be drawn...

Mr. Speaker, certainly our vision, from our government’s perspective or from northerners’ perspective, our vision of the North has not changed because the federal government changed. It is still the same vision. So when you look at the basic principles, those principles have not changed. We look at some of the main goals, whether it is on governance, protecting the environment or establishing a strong foundation for economic development, so those are the same.

Mr. Speaker, all of that information has been provided to the federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. It is now...

Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of things that are happening simultaneously. First of all, the majority of aboriginal leaders agree with what the Member has said. They want to move forward. The Aboriginal Summit has created what they call a working committee. On their side, it is three representatives from the summit. On our side, it is three representatives from our Cabinet: myself, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of ITI. We have had a phone meeting. We have made a commitment that, as soon as we got the second expert panel report, we would brief them. We will try to go...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there has been progress. In fact, substantial progress has been made in the last couple of months. With regard to resource revenues, royalties, as the Member referred, we did receive the report of the council federation expert panel. It was made available on April 6th. It was a report that was very favourable in terms of how the three territorial governments should be treated on resource revenues.

Mr. Speaker, this morning, the federal Minister of Finance made available the federal government’s expert panel report. So we now have that report. Mr. Speaker, I...

…a principle fully embraced by all Canadian Premiers.

Mr. Speaker, all Members of this Legislative Assembly have an important job to do in keeping the priorities of the Northwest Territories on the radar screen of the federal government. In April of 2005, we joined with aboriginal and business leaders to go to Ottawa to explain our case to federal leaders. I am hopeful we can undertake a similar initiative in the fall to meet with the new federal Ministers and other representatives in Ottawa to explain the challenges and opportunities that exist in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, we...