Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has come to my attention that the Government of the Northwest Territories has recently made changes to the fuel tax regime that will have serious repercussions for businesses and consumers. I understand the Department of Finance has told fuel resellers who are also responsible for collecting the fuel tax on behalf of the GNWT, that as of April 1st they can no longer purchase heating fuel from their suppliers, only diesel and, further, that they can no longer sell heating fuel to their reseller customers. This has serious implications for residents of the Northwest Territories, and it is very recent. So I hope that other constituents and people involved in this business will certainly let their MLAs know of this concern.

The GNWT’s fuel tax is currently 9.1 cents per litre for diesel. However, no tax is charged for heating fuel. The intent of the change is apparently to prevent people from trying to avoid the tax by purchasing heating fuel and then selling it as diesel. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, this new way of doing business will result in huge costs for northerners. The purchase price for diesel is higher than the price for heating oil. This increased cost will be passed on to consumers. Further, resellers will also have to pay the federal excise tax upfront for the diesel that they purchase and then apply and wait for a refund. This has placed a tremendous burden on small businesses with limited cash flow. Preventing tax evasion is clearly an important objective, but surely there are other checks that can be put in place that do not require increasing our already high cost of living or punishing the vast majority of businesses to operate honestly.

So, Mr. Speaker, I think this is a relatively new development. It is something that definitely requires our attention. It flies in the face of this government’s commitment to address the issues of the high cost of living in the Northwest Territories. Maybe there had been some violators or some businesses that have not dealt with this the way they should have. But, as my constituency assistant said, we don’t cancel the dance because two kids are drinking. So this is a very knee jerk, punitive, and draconian method of dealing with this. I will have questions for the Minister of Finance. Thank you.

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