Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Chairman, upon review and reflection, the decision was to not raise taxes except for the modest increase we put on to loose tobacco at this point. Looking after our expenditures, managing to live within our revenues and budget for the additional revenue that we look to get through the Resource Revenue Sharing Agreement. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 12, Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, we deal with issues and concerns as they are brought to our attention by MLAs, by clients, by vendors. If there is a broad cross-section of impact, we will talk to folks. In terms of what I understand the Member could be suggesting reaching out to have a much broader discussion, restate the readiness to accept invitation to meet with committee. If there is a concern by the committee about issues that require a broader outreach, then we would be happy to have that discussion with the Member or with the committee. In the meantime, we work at this level out of Hay River, as well, to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s the percentage.

Mr. Speaker, retirement planning is key to all of our residents’ personal financial health. Our government is committed to helping them make the choices that are right for them to build their own strong, sustainable future.

About 1,000 Northwest Territories residents are members of the Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan. This is a defined-benefit pension plan, similar to the one Government of the Northwest Territories employees have, but for public sector and non-profit employees working throughout the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. There are 38 NWT employers now active in the...

I do, on behalf of the employees that labour long and hard. We can’t manage or we can’t count, as we say, in many areas and this is one of those, so thank you on their behalf.

If we start with the global figure of we are going to collect roughly in total $120 million, 50 percent of that goes to the federal government. The remaining $60 million, we’ve agreed 25 percent would go to the Aboriginal governments, which gets you to the $15 million, leaving about $45 million coming to us free and clear, of which we’re putting 25 percent of that $45 million into the Heritage Fund. Thank you.

We’ll wait for any direction from committee, Government Ops, if that’s the appropriate committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That money is sunsetted and the fiscal framework is adjusted, and the money has been absorbed or will be used. We have other costs, as we laid out in the budget, that have to be dealt with, but that money is sunsetted. I’ll ask Mr. Kalgutkar if he wants to add anything further.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We, as well, will take a look at our discussions and if that was brought up possibly during a committee briefing at some point. We did make reference at some point to bringing on a new payroll compliance officer. I’m not sure if that’s maybe what the Member is referring to.

Anyway, we’ll commit to also check to see if that issue has come up. Thank you.