Mr. Speaker, the question I’m asked a lot after this discussion came out on the revenue options is: when? I’d like to ask the Finance Minister: when would the earliest implementation time be? I mean, are we looking at six months, a year? There are people out there who are even thinking we are going to be doing it this session. So just for comfort, for a lot of people out there listening, when is the earliest possible implementation were these proposals to go ahead?
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, the plan as laid out was to find $10 million in new revenue for the ’09–10 budget that was laid out initially last year. We are going to be aiming for that target, with a subsequent $30 million for 2010–11 and going forward. All the work that is being done is getting pulled together, so it will feed into the business planning process. Departments will come forward with the work that has been done. I will come forward as the Minister of Finance with the work, the feedback, the revenue options, including suggested areas where there could be tax increases, but also lay out, we think, some very productive high potential revenue options.
I thank the Minister for that. I notice in the discussion paper that there is mention that 18 per cent of employment income in the NWT was earned by non-residents. How much money are we actually talking about being earned by non-residents and leaving the territory?
Mr. Speaker, I don’t have an exact figure, but it would be millions of dollars. The Member for Kam Lake had some numbers that he has used, but it is a significant amount of money. It is leakage south that we want to try to capture and keep in the North.
Mr. Speaker, I noticed in the discussion paper that there seems to be no option to try to capture that money. I think that’s a target we should aim at and leave the personal income tax part of it, which hits people who are staying in the Northwest Territories, contributing to the Northwest Territories. I could go on forever, but I won’t. I’d like to ask the Finance Minister: do we get anything out of the 18 per cent employment income earned by non-residents?
Mr. Speaker, the payroll tax is one small attempt to capture some of that wealth that is now flying over as they go back to where they may be living in the south.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, we also talk about money leaving the Northwest Territories, and we talk about a $30 per person fee. We do not have the authority, according to the document, to tax resources, which I still can’t believe. Do we have the authority to tax industry for the number of workers they have who are non-residents of the Northwest Territories, and if we don’t, would they consider that an option too?
Mr. Speaker, one of the proposals was a potential $30 levy on all southern air travel. But, clearly, especially with the mines right now, there is a socioeconomic agreement, bilateral in nature, that we are working with. The Minister of ITI is engaged in those discussions, and the issue of the fly in/fly out, having workers in the North, is at the top of the list to assist us.
The estimates are that if we can work closely with the diamond mines, then we can start bringing, we believe, up to 100 workers a year, to have them, in fact, start living in the North, because there is going to be enough incentive for them to do that. This has a tremendous ripple effect. The 100 workers, they tell me, statistically would be more like 300 if they have families and they move to the North. So as the Member for Kam Lake has said repeatedly, there is a huge benefit here. We just have to do the right thing to capture that.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
