Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is the first Friday of the month of February, and February is Heart Month. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the statement on the web site on the Heart and Stroke Foundation that it takes a village to build heart health, and I am also pleased to announce that I will once again be joining thousands of people across Canada and the Territories going door to door to collect donations for vital Heart and Stroke Foundation research, and distribute health information over the next two weekends.

Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to tell you that the NWT raised $34,000 in a door...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that Committee Report 7-15(4) be received by the Assembly and moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Social Programs is pleased also to provide its report on the 2006-2007 Pre-Budget Review Process and commends it to the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the infrastructure money to the communities, it’s my understanding that those are multi-year funding in partnerships with the community governments and the GNWT and federal funding, as well as the federal gas tax. The former government, during the campaign, talked about making it multi-year. We are not certain about that. Could I just ask the Minister if the section that he has on page 5 is certain for now and not subject to change with the new government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Finance Minister’s budget included so much about our reliance or our relationship with the federal government that I was thinking last night that not only should the Minister of Finance become an incredible hulk, I think all 19 of us have to become incredible hulks and maybe we should even consider parking ourselves outside of Wellington Street in Ottawa and make it our full-time job to just lobby the federal government.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, we know of the importance of getting a deal on resource revenue sharing and devolution, but that’s the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 93(4) and have Committee Report 7-15(4) moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration on Monday, February 6th, 2006. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am no tax expert, but just the very topic of this could risk us losing everybody. Minister Floyd is very sufficient in this area. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask why, then, the Minister mentioned that we get to keep 100 percent risk and 100 percent reward, the decision on the 11.5 percent? Why don’t we go down lower? Where is the formula that tells him that this is the best number to be at in order to encourage or at least not lose the corporate tax filings that we have lost? I am sure there is a consideration for him to make about any penalty about what we might get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask some questions on the budget to the Minister of Finance as well. It’s in regards to the tax rate, corporate tax rate reduction that he’s announcing in the budget, Mr. Speaker. One of the perverse elements of our funding formula with the federal government is that when we have windfalls in our corporate tax revenue, we get penalized. The Minister of Finance has sat with me in committees where we’ve been dealing with this for the last four or five years. We also know, and those in the know, and one of the good things today about having a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to make some comments on the budget delivered today. Mr. Speaker, in some ways, I, too, feel like it is a Groundhog Day budget. There is not really that much new in there, although I do support the highway idea all the way to Tuk.

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But there is really not much in there that we have not heard before. Most of the light of the budget was on the federal government. I don’t think I have ever seen a budget where about half of the print speaks to that. Mr. Speaker, I, too, sincerely hope that the new Prime Minister Harper will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on page 8, in talking about revenue from corporate income tax, the Minister stated that the GNWT received $3.5 million. I am assuming that that constitutes rather a lower amount than what was expected, hence the change in corporate tax rate. So could the Minister indicate what he’s projected to have lost by the high rate prior to the reduction? Thank you.