Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, the corporate income tax is one of the options that is listed in the revenue options document. That has been looked at over the years. We have raised it in the past; we have lowered it in the past. We have the challenge of living immediately north of Alberta, which has, I believe at this point, the lowest corporate income tax in the land and a huge budget surplus and revenue stream that allows them to do that. Clearly that is one of the options that’s out there for consideration as we look at the discussions ahead.

I move that consideration of Tabled Document 75-16(2), Supplementary Appropriation Act No. 2, 2008–2009, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 75-16(2) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session in the form of an appropriation bill.

Mr. Chairman, the initial projected net suppression cost for 2008–2009 was $5.6 million. We ended up with $3 million more than that, with money that was approved.

One of the things we do every fire season is a debriefing on what happened, how it happened, in what areas and what we can learn from that. We’ve also had discussions with the department about looking at the current values at risk system and the command and control structures to make sure we are being as timely as possible and that everything is working as effectively as can be.

I want to point out that we have very capable fire staff...

Mr. Speaker, we estimate there are over 2,000 workers that are in the business of flying in and flying out. With the work we are undertaking, we’d hopefully capture at least 300 of those over the next number of years. Clearly, we believe that we have to do a better job working with the mines with the bilateral arrangements, socio-economic agreements, to realize those numbers.

Mr. Chairman, I have with me, in addition to Ms. Melhorn, Mr. Russ Neudorf, the deputy minister of Transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The estimated completion date for Aklavik is March 2010.

Yes, I can, but the rules of the House preclude me giving them in any great detail. I will commit to the Member that we will forward to the Member the luminous policies that are there in regard to print advertising.

Mr. Chairman, this is going to be a one-time process. The intent is, as I indicated previously, to have the necessary amendments to the Financial Administration Act in place for the next go-round. The other thing is that we are now doing capital in the fall, and this would give us a more accurate reflection of where we stand as we look at approving projects. Normally the carry-overs and such wouldn’t be dealt with until sometime later in the spring, which would be several months down the road. This gives us, in our opinion, for this one cycle, an opportunity to have a clearer idea of where we...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

As I indicated in the House yesterday, the process is going to carry on until the middle of October. We’ve asked people to provide feedback. We’re pulling together the work from the two day round table, at which point we will print up and release the document with the results and recommendations from the round table. At the same time, we’ll be considering all the feedback. As I indicated, then we will start building our suggestions and recommendations into the business planning process that we’ll be starting in mid-November.