Statements in Debates

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 45)

Is the program open to agriculture products?

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 45)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s not my intention to break the promise of the Finance Minister when he says he’s holding the line on taxes, so he should be assured that I’m not trying to trip him up on that promise to the people of the NWT. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister of Finance be willing to come to a meeting, if I was able to arrange it, with the Hotel Association and even some municipality officials on this particular issue about creating the hotel tax initiative? That money could be targeted at the tourism industry, an industry that could use more money to help bring new dollars into our...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 45)

The Hotel Association as well as a number of people in the tourism organizations out there all would like a hotel tax. I think they’ve been advocating for this particular type of tax for some time now. This is not a new initiative that’s been suggested. The Minister talked about downloading it maybe to further governance but I don’t think that’s the ideal approach. What conditions would the Minister of Finance need to be in place or to see supported in order to make it a territorial hotel tax?

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 45)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the NWT’s limited economy, tourism is one of the best opportunities to bring in new money to our North. One way being proposed to build upon that is being put forward by the Hotel Association. They support the creation of a territorial 1 percent hotel tax. Now, at first glance, that may seem counter-intuitive, Mr. Speaker, especially coming from business where they are saying we need a new tax, but that 1 percent hotel tax would add up on average as $1.50 per room each day, Mr. Speaker.

What they believe strongly in is this money would be new money generated to be...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 45)

Okay. I’ll take as a yes, we do on good faith.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 45)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m wondering if the Minister can give me some information on broadband infrastructure support. What does that actually mean in terms of is that equipment that we’re putting into the communities? Are we buying satellites, things of that nature, and is he able to give me some examples as to where we would see if it is infrastructure for that fact? Where we would see it? Thank you.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 44)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As a Yellowknife MLA, in my experience I don’t tend to have a ton of transportation issues in particular. But first I’ll say that what dealings I have had with the department have been very good and I find them generally quite easy to deal with. So that being certainly the primary experience I’ve gone through over the years, I too would like to highlight the Deh Cho Bridge as a significant issue that still continues to be a matter of concern in the riding and I look forward to any further update we have, both on the quality of the project and, of course, how the...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 44)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s nice to be able to provide a couple of comments regarding the Minister’s opening remarks, and quite namely, a few things inside his opening remarks did cause some interest and I would like to hear perhaps a little more detail.

In one of the paragraphs, the Minister mentioned about the transboundary water agreement with neighbouring jurisdictions. One of the challenges is we have become keenly aware, of course, as being downriver, we see the effects of the other jurisdictions. Although it has been some time since I sat on the committee that would oversee this...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 44)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this motion. I realize that it is a very passionate particular issue in the community of Aklavik. Mr. Speaker, one of the issues that has been drawn out of this particular case that removing them from the community doesn’t take into consideration is the social impact the community will have as well as those people in care, the detriment offer to them losing their close ties to their community that many of them were born in, had lived their whole lives. Many of them hoped to sort of spend their final days in that particular community.

Mr. Speaker...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 5th Session (day 44)

Those are all fantastic things and I wouldn’t want to detract from them. I guess I would follow up in the same type of manner as my earlier question, which is: has the Minister or the NWT Tourism ever considered establishing a permanent presence in Edmonton? That said, that presence could work with the City of Edmonton’s economic development, because again the mayor of Edmonton seemed quite keen on wanting to partner in a way that could benefit the whole North.