Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT needs to attract investment and we always must be a competitive environment because we all know the world is hungry for investment. The NWT is no different. We all know government must raise its revenue through fair and sound taxation policy and we have seen the global environment be very competitive to attract opportunities.

Industry needs help, at least partway through the taxation structure, that listens to their needs. Now, the government doesn’t have to do it all and I have to stress up front, if you don’t have something to tax, you can’t raise revenue, so I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, like Mr. Bromley, would like to recognize some Pages, and from the Yellowknife Centre riding I would like to recognize – I apologize if I pronounce your name incorrectly, but I’ll do the best I can – Hunaifa Malik, who’s a Sir John student and lives in Yellowknife Centre; and Mohammad Hasnain, who is from Sir John and a Yellowknife Centre Page as well. Thank you.

Why am I the only one that’s trying to do work here to create investment? It’s not my job to come up with the number. He has all the machinery. He has a multi-million dollar department that can come up with the right balance to create investment. I’m saying, I‘ve given the communications sector as an example to stimulate new investment, because if it’s not here you can’t tax it. So, how do we encourage investment? We have a good taxation structure. Sometimes it means tax holidays; sometimes it means those types of concepts.

Will the Minister invest a little time in his job and stop finding...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It made my day. We’ll see how Cabinet feels about it, but you made by day.

I appreciate the Minister of Finance’s ability to distract the House where we got talking about the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link. That wasn’t the issue; it was about creating a climate for investment such as infrastructure. So my question really is to be focused in on let’s not talk about oil and gas, let’s not talk about the mining sector or the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link.

The Minister is quite right; we have declining revenue through corporate taxation, so what is the Minister doing...

I’m not talking about every industry. I’m talking about ones that we’re spending a fair bit of money in. We’re spending $80 million on the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link, which is a great thing. Well, let’s support that with a tax structure that supports new investment. New investment means new taxation opportunities. If people don’t invest money, we don’t have taxation opportunities, no growth. That’s what I’m talking about.

So what is wrong with developing a climate that encourages new investment, which would be new taxation opportunities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Finance Minister regarding taxation policy. A communication company has approached the Northwest Territories government and wanted to talk about creating a better or more appropriate taxation environment for investment and communication equipment and they’re trying to expand throughout the Northwest Territories, but at this time the monopoly seems to have all the corners covered and it’s very discouraging for a new business or a small business to invest in the NWT if the taxation climate isn’t favourable or reasonable or certainly one that is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to speak to a personal circumstance. I had a summer student one year that was overpaid by accident by the machinery of government. The fact is, it was just a small accident and it wasn’t even a lot of money, but what was interesting is the collection agency was sent immediately. They sent the leg breakers there to pursue this over what was really a very small amount of money.

I’m trying to get to the understanding of what the policy is. Is this Minister able to speak to the size and volume of the policy that could be at risk here? I’m asking the Minister of...

Setting that aside, if a company owes money, if they owe arrears to the Government of the Northwest Territories, I need to appreciate how long we sit on this lack of payments. If there are any, we don’t know. I should be fair about that, we just don’t seem to know. There was no answer on that one way or another, so it’s not clear. But how long do we sit in a process of arrears before the Government of the Northwest Territories takes action? So I’d like to know what the policy is on that, because if somebody isn’t making lease payments, then we should be asking ourselves, when do we take action...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to ask yet another question. I’ll have a question for one of the Ministers of this particular government. With that, I’ll decide. In all honesty, I have questions for the Minister of Transportation. I happen to be looking at the statement of claim made in the Ontario Superior Court about the plaintiff against Deepak International.

We don’t talk particularly about affairs before the courts due to the sub judice matter, but what’s particularly interesting of the situation is when I asked the Minister of ITI the other day about the cutting of diamonds...

I consider it a shame that the government isn’t playing a role in this and is not a partner. We have the Tulita On-the-Land Healing Program, headed by Bessa Blondin, Lawrence Neyelle, Dean Green and Margaret McDonald doing things, connecting with the youth, connecting with the elders and making programs on the land and connecting with the people who need help.

What is this Minister willing to do today, knowing that we have had the federal government and the Movember Foundation come forward to help? Where is our own government in our own backyard helping on this one? Is the Minister willing to...