Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Minister of Finance has indicated all these issues and all these projects that we have on the go and, granted, we are doing great things with a lot of them, but I think the essence comes down to the $30 million loss of revenue that we’re seeing in corporate income tax. He’s indicated that the department didn’t anticipate this. So why is it that we do not know what we’re receiving in income tax from one year to the next where we have to receive that last minute and make us on this side of the House look like the bad guys for wanting to put money away for the future...

I understand what the Minister is saying. I guess the Minister didn’t get the message that we sent in the fall when we sent a motion forward saying we wanted to indicate 25 percent to the Heritage Fund, 25 percent to reducing debt, but they went ahead and built a budget based on 5 percent. Now we’re asking them to answer to that and why they went ahead and spent that money before we even had a chance to put our wishes forward. I guess the question is: Did they ignore the 25 percent request we did in the fall?

The Ptarmigan Inn will be hosting a pancake breakfast tomorrow morning along with a live broadcast of Brendan’s first race. In an Olympic bid presentation to the Town of Hay River, Wally Schumann of Poison Painting has created a giant Olympic banner celebrating Northwest Territories Olympians past and present. Thanks, Wally. The banner will be proudly displayed on the tower of the new fire hall. The inuksuk front the town hall will be decked out in skis and in a Canada hat.

Watch Brendan race hard and shoot clean over the next few weeks during live broadcasts in the morning on CBC. On February...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance on his new release of this year’s budget.

I would like to ask the Minister, if he had done his tour of the Northwest Territories, how he can justify as the amount that we are supposed to put into the Heritage Fund when we have clearly heard other numbers such as 25 percent and 50 percent?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I started yesterday, I indicated that we were in an exciting time here, and the Minister of Finance’s presentation of the budget today is no exception to that excitement. We’re going to show a $200 million surplus. He’s indicated that there’s a bunch of indications for Hay River’s opportunity: midwifery, obviously the biomass industry is of great interest in the Hay River area and the South Slave, and also investment in the fishing industry.

Devolution brings a lot of excitement. We’re seeing $59 million for new employees, revenue of $27 million. Everything should be...

Thank you. Another area of interest in the budget is the discussion of the regional positions. The Minister’s presentation indicated that there’s going to be 52 positions in the regions. I’m just wondering: how many positions are we putting into Yellowknife with devolution?

I know the Minister did attend Hay River and he indicated that Hay River supported the 5 percent. At the same time, the Minister indicated that we were reducing debt and he’s indicated in our budget here that we are looking at borrowing another billion dollars. So I mean, I think Hay River is supportive of 5 percent plus paying down the debt. I think the 25 percent that we’re looking on this side for is a cost-savings. The community of Hay River is looking to save more towards the future.

I wonder how the Minister justifies this when he indicated that we’re going to reduce debt but we’re...

Our Minister of Finance has been travelling through the Northwest Territories and he’s indicated to the public that with that resource revenue sharing money we’re going to put some money into the Heritage Fund, we’re going to pay down debt. But, really, we’re not paying down debt. We’re looking at taking on another billion dollars’ worth of debt.

The general public supported the concept of putting money away, and I think the way we put money away is through our Heritage Fund, and we should be putting money away at 25 percent per year, not 5 percent.

I think we’re looking at terminology. The Minister indicated that we are looking to borrow a billion dollars. The indication that he said that we might have been misled is the fact that we indicated that we’re actually going to reduce our debt. This budget says we are going to reduce our debt and that’s what they have been selling, but in this budget they are also talking about borrowing another billion dollars. So I’m just wondering where the Minister sees the difference in that. We’ve talked to the communities about reducing the debt, but now in this budget we are actually taking on more...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is great to be back here, and I welcome all my colleagues back to the Legislative Assembly. We have a long six weeks ahead of us, and going into this type of thing there is anticipation, there is excitement, but there is also concern. It is just like getting together with your family. We know that we are going to have a long session together, and we know sometimes with that type of length we are going to get into some arguments and some debates, so I apologize for anything I say to them over the next six weeks.

I would also like to mention that you opened up this...