Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I would like to provide an update on the fiscal planning being undertaken by the Government of the Northwest Territories for the coming fiscal year.

The government’s planning for the 2009–10 fiscal year began almost as soon as the review of the 2008 budget was completed. The 2008 budget outlined a fiscal strategy that included making significant reductions to our operating expenditure base — $135 million over two years, with a portion reallocated to investment priorities over the next four years. Operating expenditure forced growth would be capped at 3 per cent per year, excluding...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My recollection is that they’re all scheduled for March 2010.

I suppose the first challenge would be to agree on the definitions or come to understand the definitions of the words that the Member is using — stabilize, levelize — in relation to corporate taxes and those types of things. Clearly, the goal of the government, as laid out by the Premier and that I as well spoke to in my fiscal update, is to come up with affordable government that has new revenues coming in, where we have a government that we can afford, yet we maintain the high level of services that people have come to expect. We’re working diligently to reach that point.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The next collective bargaining is going to be in the next number of months with the UNW. I understand they have to go through their convention and election process, and then right after that we’re all gearing up for that round of collective bargaining. If we assume that the length of the agreement will be similar to the one we settled with NWTTA, it would be possibly a four year agreement, which means it wouldn’t come this way again until sometime in the life of the 17th Assembly.

As I’ve indicated to Ms. Bisaro, if there’s a better way to book and account for the money...

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.