Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the CBC news article, "NWT in Talks to Raise Debt Limit As Budget Projects Slight Deficit," published on February 6th of this year, the finance Minister has indicated that he has reached out to his federal counterpart and begun discussions on raising the debt limit. Can the Minister offer more details on what is happening in these discussions? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have had initial discussions with Minister Morneau on our debt limit, and we have not gone very deeply into discussion yet. I did indicate to him that it is our desire to sit with him and his officials and actually start the discussions of raising our debt limit. He was receptive to that, so we are just looking at time when we can actually sit down and have that conversation.
So I think I am hearing it's fair to characterize this as early stages of discussions. When is the Minister going to involve this side of the House in those discussions? It would be nice to know what's driving this, what our fiscal needs are, and what he is asking his federal counterpart for. Can the Minister let us know when we are going to be involved in those discussions?
Through a number of the briefings we have had with committees on our financial situation and the desire if we were to take on larger projects, well, the challenge we would be faced with our current debt limit, given that initial, but I do commit to Members, something as important as this, obviously I will be keeping the Members up to date. If there is a desire from the Members to have the Minister sit with them before I go and have my discussions with the federal Finance Minister and seek their input and advice, I would be glad to do that.
Thank you to the Minister for that commitment. It's very much appreciated. I wonder if these talks are going to dovetail with the territorial financing formula discussions that are upcoming. Can the Minister provide any clarity on that?
Any opportunity we have to raise the discussion on the territorial formula financing with our federal counterpart is one we take advantage of. If there is an opportunity during our discussions to that, the debt limit will have no effect on the territorial formula financing. That is kind of a separate discussion, but we use every opportunity in our discussions with Ottawa to raise our need for the funding for the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate that these are separate topics, but they are somewhat intrinsically linked. You either have money to spend or money to spend through borrowing. If we are not getting it from TFF, then we are going to have to raise taxes. Obviously, 45,000 people cannot exactly bear that burden or provide the government with the resources it needs to take on these projects, so is the Minister willing to bring TFF into this conversation? I am fine with either approach, but we need a strategy to get these projects done.
Any opportunity we have to bring more money into the Northwest Territories without having to go on the backs of our hardworking employees of all sectors in the Northwest Territories and raise taxes, I think we have done a good job in the last three years. I made it quite clear from day one that we have not raised personal income tax in the Northwest Territories because we do know that our residents are challenged as it is with the high cost of living, especially in a lot of the smaller communities, so we do not want to add further burden. However, if we are able to have that discussion with Ottawa and talk about an increase to our TFF so we were able to have the money to still deliver a lot of the programs and job-creating opportunities we have, then I will take advantage of it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
