Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize one of the Pages who has been working with us for the last couple of weeks, Raya Laframboise. She’s not in the House today, but she has been doing great work along with all the other Pages who have been working with us for this week and last week. I can’t see him, but I can’t not say hello to Mr. David Wasylciw. Welcome to the house, David. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a Page from Yellowknife South, Kyra Hanninen, and thank all the Pages that have assisted here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize the good work of all the Pages in the House. This is a long session; I know a lot of the Pages have put in long hours here, so thank you. I want to specifically recognize Ashley Stride. Ashley is a constituent of Kam Lake and a student at Sir John Franklin School. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. I would like to welcome everybody in the public gallery here today. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On February 6, 2015, the Minister of Public Works and Services announced an immediate fuel savings of eight to nine cents per litre in 16 communities that it serves. This is indeed great news for these NWT residents and I applaud the government for finally capturing the recent lower fuel prices by passing on such savings and helping to lower the cost of living for our Northerners. However, upon further analysis, I do have questions for the Minister.
Can the Minister indicate by what methodology did Public Works and Services come up with the eight to nine cents per litre saving model for these 16 communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We determine price by the actual price of the products and the transportation of those products and, of course, the distribution once they are in the community. We look at those and, recognizing that the fuel was not actually in the community yet, we are looking at the rack price of fuel down south and when we are going to buy, anticipating the transportation costs in there, and we were very comfortable with the reduction. We could anticipate more reductions, as well, later on in this winter road season. Thank you.
From the Minister’s own words, it sounds like some of this fuel is not yet in the community and it appears that the PWS fuel services’ buying strategy is using some form of hedging that they are applying and passing to the customers. This strategy would suggest that these fuel savings would extend well into next season’s bulk purchases as well.
Can the Minister elaborate? Are these fuel price savings being hedged over a two-year window? Thank you.
These prices are for this year. We think that the price may stabilize or go back up a bit, but we haven’t hedged the cost of fuel moving forward. We have the Stabilization Fund that’s designed to stabilize the fuel costs in the communities. When the fuel prices go down, we increase the Stabilization Fund. When the fuel prices go back up, we decrease the Stabilization Fund, keeping it stable but not two years into the future. Thank you.
Even if we’re using the term “stabilization,” it’s still a form of a hedging because we’re balancing out those prices. Should this hedging concept produce even greater savings per litre with a new summer bulk purchase program and should fuel prices remain the same or stabilize, does the Minister see further reduction of the price per litre being passed on to the residents in these communities? Thank you.
Yes, we do.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s reply there. Some jurisdictions in North America are stockpiling fuel at today’s market price. Some are renting extra storage and realizing that these fuel savings trump storage costs.
If this is indeed the case, can the Minister indicate if his department is considering doing the same to keep stretching these savings to the residents? Thank you.
The shelf life of fuel is about three years, and we also need the capacity in order to store fuel. The Member is correct; there are possibilities of renting storage for fuel, but I think the cost of fuel would have to be considerably lower than what we’re anticipating in the future in order to make it feasible. So right now we’re looking at filling up our own capacities, to buy as much fuel as possible at this point with the capacity that we currently have without renting from outside of government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The language initiative across the NWT is taking on different forms. One of the initiatives that complicated this is trying to instill a level of cultural identity. Some communities have gone to advance those initiatives by changing the name of their community. But what we have is two government departments, so my question is to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Does the Minister’s department work seamlessly with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to facilitate a community’s application for an official name change? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a coordinated approach between Municipal and Community Affairs and Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.
Can the Minister clarify whether a simple majority on the plebiscite or option poll is enough to prove that a community wants a name change? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I can’t clarify that right now, but I would assume it’s 50 percent, 51 percent to approve a name change. But I will confirm that and relay that on to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Does the government have an official position on community name changes and does it actively support communities that want to take this step, or is the government neutral on this matter? Mahsi.
We work with the communities and if there’s a desire from the communities to change their name to their more traditional language, which a lot of them are doing, this government would fully support the position of the community, and if that’s their wish then we will respect that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister explain, for the sake of the community understanding this process, what would the process entail and perhaps how long might that process take? Mahsi.
Thank you. As far as how long the process goes, I’m really not quite sure. We will work with the communities and try to expedite their desire to change their name if they wish to do that. So I will get the correct information and I will share it with the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
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 welcoming.
Can the Minister of Finance give us an update as to what type of taxation policy and flexibility do we have to create tax holidays that encourage investment, growth and long-term revenues for the Government of the Northwest Territories, and at the same time encourages job growth that we so dearly, direly need? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we are doing as a government is investing over $80 million in a Fibre Optic Link that’s going to go all the way up and down the valley. It’s going to hook in all the small communities. It’s going to create tremendous business opportunity for the final mile piece in the communities in terms of all the services that need to be provided for, the infrastructure to support those services.
So we see this approach, and the Member touched on it in his statement, about it’s not so much the taxing, it’s the creating the conditions for economic development and that’s what we see our focus on. If the Member would rather me try to give a smorgasbord of what may be possible for what the Member calls tax holidays, I’m more interested or we’re more interested in tax fairness. If he has a specific suggestion, I’m happy to discuss that. Thank you.
Governments have been very generous on tax holidays and I see his point about, well, let’s just put one particular issue on the table, but often we hear, well, we shouldn’t single out an industry. So now I’m hearing we should single out an industry. So I’ll say, would the Minister be able to create a tax environment that invests in communication equipment? He so rightly highlighted the $80 million investment in the Fibre Optic Link. Well, here we are drawing the attention of the world. Why don’t we expand a little further so that attention of the world gets investment in our communities through a communications taxation scheme that encourages the investment and will demonstrate long-term job growth and stabilized revenue that meets our needs?
Thank you. Our corporate income tax is, I believe, 11.5 percent, which puts us somewhere in the middle in terms of corporate taxes across Canada, middle to the lowest, I think on the low side. Our small business tax is, I believe, very modest, as well, 4 percent I believe. So when the Member talks about a tax holiday for telecommunications, for certain telecommunications, he’d have to be clearer. It’s maybe not that easy to say that there’s going to be a lot of implications and why we would focus on one particular industry when I’m sure that we would be able to hear a very strong case from just about every sector about why they should all be given tax holidays. Thank you.
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.
I would argue quite strenuously that the $82 million investment in the Fibre Optic Link is just the kind of investment that the Member is talking about. We’re putting in critical economic infrastructure that helps create the conditions for development.
When you are in business, there are all sorts of write-offs, depreciation, capital investments, construction investments that can be written off. So, once again, the Member is making a fairly sweeping statement. He’s decided that the focus should be a certain aspect of the telecommunications industry and it’s not clear enough to me how he would make that justification and not other sectors or why not the whole area. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister can say what he wants, but the fact is this Member is trying to do something and the Minister is trying to defend the status quo. The point is we have to encourage investments, outside investment, in order to create growth and jobs. That’s all I hear is lip service from this government. Here’s a real opportunity, Mr. Speaker.
Will the Minister go back to the table and say how can we target markets to encourage investment in the Northwest Territories? As far as the Mackenzie Fibre Optic Link, we are paying for it and we don’t tax ourselves. We want outside investment coming to the NWT. I’ve heard this for years about how we want to get people and money here, so this is how we do it.
Will the Minister take it back to the table and ask his officials, who all like to say no, to find a way to do it other than finding a way not to do it? Thank you.
The erosion of our tax revenues is an issue of concern, as I pointed out in our budget address. Our corporate taxes are down many tens of millions of dollars. So, once again, the Member is standing up saying we should make an investment. I’m saying an $82 million investment in digital infrastructure, fibre optic infrastructure, gives tremendous benefit and ability for people to do business, for telecommunication people to do business with cutting edge, top-of-the-line facilities is the kind of investment that government should be doing. If we just said we were going to give an $80 million tax holiday and have nothing to show for it, people would say, what are you doing? Now, we can say we are going to spend $80 million of taxpayers’ money. We’re going to put in a fibre optic link that is going to create a huge economic opportunity in Inuvik, remote sensing site, global capacity and global significance along with every community down the valley is going to have fibre optic connections and all the business opportunities that flow from that, to me, is the kind of investment government should be making. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I would like to follow up on my statement and ask some questions about the action that’s going to be taken on replacing board members on the Ekati Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency Board.
In my experience, that board has done extremely good work. In my experience, as well, it is past practice to replace board members when they retire. It’s also my experience that the board has been relatively critical in doing their good work and sometimes forces the owner/operator, Ekati, to do some things which they may not want to do but which are better in the long run.
My first question to the Minister is: Who initiated this change in board members? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This particular board has bylaws where folks are appointed, but there is no end date to their terms. That’s one issue. At least one of the members has been on the board since 1997. That’s another issue. In the Northwest Territories in my time in government, my time in government period, the whole goal has been to put Northerners in positions and on the boards where they are making decisions about activities that affect people of the Northwest Territories, the whole thrust of devolution. So when the opportunity came that the board bylaws were going to be redone, that there’s going to be terms set in and that everybody would have end terms, their terms would lapse and the new bylaws would kick in, it seemed to be a very critical time and a natural time to put Northerners into those positions. We do have capable Northerners, skilled Northerners, experienced Northerners who can do that. That’s one of the functions of government, and when that opportunity came due, I as Minister said this was the time to do that. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that information. I can’t argue against putting Northerners on boards. I agree with that, but I do have a large problem with the way this process was done. It suggests that these particular board members weren’t doing good work and I know that that’s not true.
So, in order to provide for continuity on the board, in order to find a good way to do it to ensure a smooth transition from one set of board members to another, because this is happening in the middle of an environmental assessment, I would like to ask the Minister if he consulted the board before this decision was made on what was the best way to do it. Thank you.
I, as well, would like to acknowledge that the work that was done by the current board members is not the question. Their ability is not being questioned. The fact that they have the skill is not being questioned. What we have is an opportunity with the changing of the bylaws and putting in terms, that there’s a natural transition point that we should take advantage of because there’s a fundamental underlying priority that we have Northerners who can do those jobs and can fill those positions and they should be there. Current board members live in other jurisdictions, other provinces south of 60 and the time has come to make the switch. We’ve done it in a time where the board is changing its bylaws, there then will be an opportunity for outgoing board members to sit in a meeting with the incoming board members, along with the other board, to have that final meeting, to have that transitional arrangement. Then this board will be populated with Northerners, which is a fundamental priority of the government.
