Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government’s internal Audit Bureau spent over 600 hours of man time to investigate the allegations that have been raised in regard to tobacco, and they reached the following conclusions, which I will quickly outline:

that there was a reasonable assurance that the GNWT was collecting the required tobacco tax revenue;

there was no evidence to support assertions that collectors were under-reporting their sales volume to the GNWT;

there was no evidence that the Northwest Company was incorrectly reporting sales to the NWT to avoid paying the higher tax rate; and

some...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 4, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2011-2012, be read for the third time. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 4, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2011-2012, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 4, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2011-2012, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We appreciate the intent and concern voiced and articulated in the motion. However, we also want to be very clear to the people we represent, that there is nothing imminent here, that we know of, for Old Age Security. It is good to be proactive, but any changes contemplated could be as much as 20 or 25 years down the road. It behooves us all to look at how we are doing, managing for retirement, but we want to reassure the elders today that they can go to bed and wake up knowing that they are not under any imminent threat, that this will be some time coming. We want to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The assertion initially was that we were missing up to $12 million to $15 million a year in lost tax revenue because of unreported tobacco sales. We put a significant amount of manpower onto that issue to follow up on that matter. As Finance Minister, the thought of us missing that kind of revenue, given our fiscal circumstances, immediately got my eye. We spent months doing the work. We’ve come back. The first finding is that there’s a reasonable assurance that the GNWT was collecting the required tobacco tax revenue.

The Member has some ongoing concerns. I’m prepared...

We’ve spent a lot of time looking at this issue. There are a number of questions and areas, of course, for further discussion. Is the issue on the wholesale side and setting up a single wholesaler, or is it on the retail side, which is where I believe the problem is, and the issue of while we can have a good system like most laws in the country, which is why we have jails and police. If people want to try to circumvent the system, as they do with tobacco, there are many ways to try to do that. Our job, as the Member has indicated, is to try to make sure that we have as airtight a system as...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 3, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2011-2012, be read for the third time. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 3, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2011-2012, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 3, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2011-2012, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.