Debates of March 24, 2004 (day 7)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to see that the Minister of Justice sits today because his return to oral questions certainly puts my question into proper context. On October 30, 2003, an interesting bill called Bill C-48 was reviewed under the Natural Resources of Canada Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce. The intent of the bill was to attract industry on private lands and further allow deductibles by industry on Crown lands, Mr. Speaker. So my question is to the Minister of Finance. Would he be willing to have his department do further studies to see if this form of taxation can be implemented in the Northwest Territories so that aboriginal groups or companies can use this type of taxation to invest into social and economic programs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Return To Question 70-15(3): Self-Government And Taxation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the present time, though many of the aboriginal groups now are working towards self-government status, they do not have the ability for tax regimes at this time. There are ongoing discussions with the Department of Finance in the area of tax sharing of when these self-government agreements come into effect. So for the time being, there’s not that avenue. As a government we’re looking at all the options we can put forward in securing enough revenue to provide programs and services for the residents of the Northwest Territories. So we will look at options brought forward and take them into consideration as long as we end up protecting our revenue base that we’re operating from at this time. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Allen.

Supplementary To Question 70-15(3): Self-Government And Taxation

Mr. Speaker, I’m quite surprised that the Minister won’t consider introducing this type of methodology to try to eradicate some of these problems. As we see, direct monies are flowing to aboriginal groups in many instances, as well as northern institutions. I’m asking the Minister again, would he consider in the context of this question introducing such a taxation mechanism to assist this government to see if they can cost-share some of the many expensive programs that we’re currently indentured to deliver? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 70-15(3): Self-Government And Taxation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the area of our tax bases, one thing, as I stated, is that we are in negotiations and discussions with aboriginal groups that are on the verge of having self-governments established in their jurisdictions. We are also discussing our tax-sharing arrangements and seeing how far we can do that. As a government, we are interested in hearing from the groups and Members of this Assembly to try and enhance our situation. A form of that can be tax incentives. If we can use tax incentives to increase and stimulate investment in the Northwest Territories that’s something we will look at, as long as we don’t lose the revenue we have that would end up cutting our programs again, whoever would have that. If it’s an aboriginal government we need to ensure they have enough revenue to continue those programs. As the GNWT we have to ensure we have a solid revenue base to continue the programs and services that we have. We are looking and would look for options that would be available to us to try and enhance what we have and work with the aboriginal governments to ensure that they can provide programs and levels of service at the levels that would be adequate. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Allen.

Supplementary To Question 70-15(3): Self-Government And Taxation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recognizing that as an ongoing issue between the aboriginal governments and our territorial government still requires us to form some form of partnership arrangements with our aboriginal governments in support of trying to introduce taxation that would be beneficial to our residents. I’m asking again, why is it such a difficulty to see if they would support such an initiative that would be very cost beneficial to our territory? I’m going to ask the Minister, in repetition to my first question, is he willing to have his department do some further studies to see if that can be applied across the Northwest Territories in the context of both private and Crown lands? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 70-15(3): Self-Government And Taxation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member has raised this issue prior and referred to Bill C-48 and, as a result, I had asked for that information and we’d brought it to the department to have a look at the scenarios that could come out of it. The initial scenarios would cost the government in its revenue base. We’d have to see what kind of development could occur. As I stated, the exercise we’re going through and will continue to go through is that we don’t have enough revenue at this time to maintain the level of services and programs that are existing. We’re looking at options. If there are initiatives that come forward that can protect the base as we have it or, in fact, aboriginal groups and governments as they become established could use those tools to enhance their level of services we’d gladly look at those. As I stated, we are in discussions now with the negotiators that are involved in the self-government discussions for their regions and looking at possible tax arrangements. Thank you.

Final Supplementary, Mr. Allen.

Supplementary To Question 70-15(3): Self-Government And Taxation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for replying to my questions. Quickly, in a similar context, can you make a distinction between what the Tlicho taxation agreement applies to the overall process of what would be so different from what I am asking the Minister? Thank you.

Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 70-15(3): Self-Government And Taxation

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Tlicho agreement, number one, would have to be signed off and agreed to with the federal government. Once that is done, a number of things would happen and we are working already to ensure that when that timeline comes upon us we have agreements in place. There are discussions now on tax arrangements. Part of what would happen, and the scenario we see, is that we would…The federal government is involved in these discussions as giving tax room to the self-government group. Once they have that tax room from a GNWT perspective, we would see potentially some tax room going to the aboriginal group as well. Along with that would come the expenditure that is being made on behalf of the citizens. So that tax room would come with responsibility and some burden with it. So there are negotiations going on now. There are ongoing discussions about net fiscal benefit for those groups, the same discussions we are having with Ottawa right now in trying to ensure that we end up getting an actual benefit. So we are looking at options, trying to work with the groups to ensure that we have the appropriate levels of services and revenues to cover those services. If what Mr. Allen has discussed allows that to happen, we will be glad to do more work in that area. In our initial look at it, it doesn’t seem that it would provide that for us at the existing time, but we will look at investigating it more if we can get more detail on how it would work. Thank you.