Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d just like to seek clarification from the Minister. It was difficult to hear him. I wasn’t sure if he said that the surplus could be spent on something other than the fire suppression.

Memory may not serve me correctly, but for some reason I seem to recall that we’ve gone to a special warrant process for the last five years that I’ve been in the Assembly. Has there been a supplementary appropriation to pick up the shortfall every year for the last five years? Would the Minister be able to tell me that? Am I correct?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ve cited a number of times under forest management that the department should take the initiative and start creating some type of revolving fund, knowing that quite often we go over budget in this area and we keep coming back to the Assembly and topping that up. I realize we’re paying what one could describe as actuals, but I’d certainly like to see the department investigate a process or that we start funding forest management properly so they don’t have to keep coming back each year.

I say that with the proviso that it’s reasonable to understand that some years are...

I’ve read those numbers very closely in the five years I’ve been here, and I notice the one thing that sticks out very evidently is that there’s no tax stabilization policy that levelizes our taxes, sets some aside for the rainy day and certainly is there on the good days. What is this Minister doing to help levelize and stabilize our tax policies that will help so that when big business decides to file somewhere else, it doesn’t cause a crumble like it did in our last budget?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Finance Minister for his creative way of describing my oral question back in June. Quite interestingly enough, I don’t think Michael Moore could have painted it more creatively. The fact is that I was asking about what we are doing to make up that $15 million loss in corporate taxes and how come we are not considering raising the sin taxes in balancing the fact that we are cutting and firing employees.

So to put it in context — my question to the Finance Minister is again almost similar to the question in June: what are we doing to expand the growth of our...

Speaking on that line, has he heard anyone out there say that they wanted a sales tax? Because if we open that door — whether it’s 1 per cent, 8 per cent, whatever per cent — we’ll never shut it. Has he heard anyone glowingly say that this was a good idea? Where did this crazy idea of a sales tax come from?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I am hearing is the Finance Minister conceding on most of these tax initiatives. I am really curious about why he is wasting everyone’s time. It seems quite clear on that side of the House that they don’t even think all of these are going to be taken seriously by them, let alone the public. So why didn’t the Finance Minister put the test to committee, one by one on these suggestions, and ask if committee would support these or not? Can I get that answer? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we need a program review. Of course, it’s obvious we can’t review all the government all at the same time, but we could start, as other Members have said here, with two or three departments to see how we could achieve business by doing things better. It’s true that not all programs are bad, but let me tell you, a number are working properly.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I don’t want to see us raise taxes just to bail out health boards to the tune of $217 million in write-offs without going to the taxpayer and saying: we tried our very best. We’re not trying our best. Pay attention...

Now I’m nervous about giving the fire suppression budget too much money, because who knows where it’ll end up.

Would fire suppression money be considered one of those earmarks of dollars that are strictly to be focused in on that type of line item only? Or if there was a surplus, could the fire suppression money be used, say, on Human Resources or maybe jet boats somewhere? If that’s the case, how many months would it take for this Assembly to get notice that the money was used for some other purpose and in what detail?

I’ll wait until I get that level of detail from the Minister of Finance, and I’ll provide a suggestion after we have that comparison data.