Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister responsible for NWT Power Corporation.
Tabled Document 376-18(2):
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "2017-2018 Corporate Plan NWT Hydro Corporation and Northwest Territories Power Corporation." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Tabling of documents. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 403-18(2): Seniors Sport and Recreation Program Funding." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Coroner's Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is on the floor. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
Bill 24 has had its first reading. First reading of Bills. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Residential Tenancies Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
Bill 25 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Minister of Infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, No. 2, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The motion is in order. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Testart.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good to see you back. Committee wishes to consider Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will consider the act after a short recess.
---SHORT RECESS
I will now call the Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act. I will ask the Minister responsible for the bill to introduce it. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We thank you for the opportunity to present Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, to the Committee of the Whole. This bill responds to our commitment approved in the 2016-2017 budget to provide further financial assistance to low and modest-income families to raise their children through an enhancement to the Northwest Territories Child Benefit.
The amendments to the NWT Income Tax Act will allow us to enhance the NWT Child Benefit by providing a total of $2.2 million in direct support for children in families with annual income up to $80,000. This enhanced program supports a number of priorities in the 18th Legislative Assembly's mandate, including lowering the cost of living, fostering healthy families, and supporting the well-being of children so that they can develop to their full potential.
The new benefit amounts start at $815 for the first child under six and $652 for the first child six years of age and older. This per-child benefit is reduced for each additional child and as family income increases, but will provide benefits for children to every family with income under $80,000. This is a significant enhancement to the current program that completely eliminates benefits as early as $41,000 in annual income for a one-child family and $61,000 in annual income for a five-child family.
Bill 17 also includes the following technical amendments to the Income Tax Act to:
incorporate provisions of the federal Income Tax Act on withholding of tax refund;
update names of federal agencies;
remove duplication of the Consumer Price Index determination;
apply the federal penalty provisions for false statements, omissions, or gross negligence to the NWT Child Benefit program;
eliminate the territorial Overseas Employment Tax Credit; and
remove reference to the federal Education Tax Credit. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. I will now turn to the Chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations. The committee can consider the bill for any opening comments he may have. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Standing Committee on Government Operations concluded its review of Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, on April 6, 2017, for the public hearing held here in the Legislative Assembly building. The bill amends the Income Tax Act by facilitating the provision of additional financial support to low- and modest-income families by:
adjusting the formula for the NWT Child Benefit;
incorporate provisions of the federal Income Tax Act that relate to the withholding of tax refunds;
updating the names of some federal agencies;
clarifying the definition of the Consumer Price Index;
applying federal penalty provisions relating to false statements, omissions, or gross negligence in income tax returns;
eliminating the Overseas Employment Tax Credit; and
retaining the Education Tax Credit.
Members may have additional comments or questions as we proceed with the consideration of this bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
Yes, I would, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses to the Chamber. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses to the Chamber.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my right, I have Mr. David Stewart, deputy minister of Finance, and to my left, I have Mr. Ian Rennie, who is the legislative counsel.
Thank you, Minister. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 17. Any general comments? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to state my strong support for this bill. I think that it creates a very effective way to support modest- to low-income families through the enhanced NWT Child Benefit. It's a very progressive piece of government policy. It's income-tested and it's going to apply to I think the total number is 2,000 families after it is implemented. The only regret I have is that it's not a mandate commitment, and I believe it should be. It directly speaks to our support for lowering the cost of living. It directly speaks to our support for families in need. It's a very good piece.
The other parts of the bill, although less significant, are certainly required in order to modernize the legislation and update it vis-a-vis federal statutes. The committee did take its time to properly understand the NWT Child Benefit. There was a bit of confusion on how the bill was initially presented, but I'd like to also thank the department for taking the time to work with us to clearly express our concerns around how this bill was going to roll out.
I think the Minister, again, is deserving of some praise for effectively communicating both the policy objectives and the funding for this very important measure to alleviate poverty and give Northerners a leg up. With that, I will close my comments. Again, I state my very strong support for this bill. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Any further opening comments on Bill 17? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the review of this piece of legislation was unnecessarily hampered by not just poor but dismal communication by the Department of Finance. It took a very considerable amount of work by our research staff to understand where the money was and is to pay for this benefit and how taking money out of income assistance for food and clothing was not at the detriment to the people who need it most. Income assistance, as you know, is not over the poverty line. I have to say that this is another example of very poor communications within the Department of Finance. They are trying to communicate information to people who are interested in hearing it, very motivated to understand it, and yet, as I say, it took an inordinate amount of work to get to a point where we could understand where it's at.
We've had these challenges as well with the public accounts. I understand that the Department of Finance doesn't have a communication staff, and I would just like to say to the Minister that it is urgently needed that the staff in his department are able to communicate clearly with the committee about the plans that they are making. There is no question that this bill will benefit 1,600 families who have not previously benefited from this NWT Child Benefit and that is undoubtedly a good thing, but the struggle to get to that clear understanding was just completely unnecessary and I believe can be remedied by proper communications help. I don't have any doubts about supporting this bill. I think it is the right thing to do, but I really would like to hope that the next work with the Department of Finance is better guided by communications. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I want to echo my colleague's comments on the need for improved communications. This is very complex area. It was sort of triggered by the Canada Child Care Benefit being brought in by the federal government, and then our government decided to follow up with the NWT Child Benefit, so the relationship between the federal program and the new territorial program and income assistance took a lot of time and effort on the part of both the department, I guess, and Regular MLAs to understand this.
I think there's a lesson learned there in terms of how to improve communications. As difficult as it may be for us as Regular MLAs to understand what was happening, I'm really much more concerned about what it is for the person on the street and how they can understand these changes. Really, you can only take full advantage of these changes when people actually file their income tax. I'd like to know from the department and the staff what extra effort are we going to do to encourage people to actually file their taxes? We're just finished that season now. You know, I don't pay attention to every piece of media that I see here, but I don't recall seeing a sustained media on the part of our government to encourage people to file their taxes to take advantage of this kind of benefit.
In any event, like my colleague who just spoke from Yellowknife Centre, I have concern around the communications of this, the complexity of it, and how we communicate this to the average person in the Northwest Territories so they can take full advantage of it and encourage people to file their taxes. Those are my opening remarks. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. I see no further opening remarks. Does committee agree that we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will defer the bill until after the consideration of clauses. Committee, please turn to page 3 of the bill. I will take a short break. Thank you, committee.
---SHORT RECESS
I will now call Committee of the Whole back to order. I believe that in the opening statements Mr. O'Reilly posed a question that he would like the Minister to respond to. Mr. O'Reilly, would you please restate your question, and I will allow the Minister a chance to respond.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess there are two items that I am hoping I can hear from the Minister or his staff about. First off, like my colleague had mentioned, I understand this is a complex area, but we have got to find a way to more effectively communicate this in general. Secondly, how are we working with people to try to encourage them to file their taxes to take full advantage of this? I didn't see any campaign around this during the last tax filing season, so what are we doing to encourage people to file their taxes to take full advantage of this new benefit? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to the first point, and that goes to Member for Yellowknife Centre's question as well on the communication. We do have communication people on staff now under the Corporate Shared Services, so communication efforts should improve. To Mr. O'Reilly's question, we work with CRA. CRA had a bit of a promotional campaign. We worked closely with them to try and get people to understand that they need to file their income tax because this is based on their income tax filing. The fact that there is an opportunity for more money in their pocket, I think, would be encouragement or incentive enough, but our improved communications and the fact that there is an opportunity for people to access more money, I think, will be incentive enough. We will continue to work on that. As we go through the next tax filing system, we will ensure that we do our part to get the information out there as to the importance of filing your income tax return. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. We can now proceed to the clause-by-clause review of the bill. Would committee please turn to page 3 of the bill. We'll go through this one clause at a time. Clause 1.
---Clauses 1 through 14 inclusive approved
Thank you, committee. Committee, to the bill as a whole. Does committee agree that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Bill 17 is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Thank you to the Minister and your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that the Chair rise and report progress.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. There is a motion to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion is carried.
---Carried
I will now rise and report progress.
