Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask Mr. Miltenberger which part of what he’s heard from the representatives of our constituents on this side of the House today could possibly, with regard to the tax options, be considered misleading? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we have engaged in a discussion. We’ve put out a discussion paper. We’re talking about options. There have been no decisions made. There have been a number of taxes listed. The documents laid out taxes that were there for consideration. The press clearly put a particular spin on it. There is a misunderstanding in some quarters that all these taxes are being basically agreed to.
Nothing has been agreed to. We’re looking at other revenue options like those that have been suggested by other Members. For example, trying to grow the population and bring more wealth, bring more people into the Territories to build our economic base.
There have been no decisions. This is a discussion paper. To stand up and say — for anybody, the press or anywhere — that these are all happening, it’s not the fact. The case is that we’ve put the document out for discussion, and we’re looking for feedback. When we’re finished the feedback process, we’ll pull all that work together and we will come back. There will be a report done on the round table. We will of course be fully engaging with all the committees about what work has to be done as we look at and lay out the whole budget process, including the reductions for ’09–10, as well as the revenue options, to try to sustain the government that we have and the high level of service that we currently provide.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank Mr. Miltenberger for that explanation. I do concur with him that there were some almost statements of fact about these taxes having been a foregone conclusion on this side of the House today. So if you perceived that, I hear you; I did perceive that a little bit too.
They are only options at this time. But we want to get in there and tell you that any — or tell Mr. Speaker; I don’t want to speak directly to the Minister. But we would like to make sure that this government clearly understands that it would be the preference under the tax options to be taxing multinational companies who are here harvesting our resources rather than the residents of the Northwest Territories who are struggling with the cost of living. Would Mr. Miltenberger agree that that would be preferable? Thank you.
I, as well, have been getting a number of comments and feedback on my e-mails and from wherever I happen to be going. As a government we are very sensitive to the implications of any decision we make with regard to taxes or reductions. We’ve been directed very clearly, and the message from the last budget process was that reductions weren’t the favoured option. So we’ve come forward with plans to look at other revenue options so that we don’t have to necessarily increase the number of reductions we’re talking about.
Yes, we are very sensitive to this, and we want to make sure that we don’t further drive up the cost of living for members in the communities. We have set up special initiative committees to in fact look at the cost of living. We don’t want to be counterproductive here. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
