Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are mining our best sources of non-renewable resources, our richest mineral and fuel deposits and most valuable diamonds, as fast as we can with little regard to the future or our responsibility to nail down firm benefits for those who will come after. Like many jurisdictions we face two main problems: resource prices can be highly volatile, and the resources are exhaustible. Also, of course, development can have significant negative social and environmental costs.
One opportunity to manage this is to establish a non-renewable permanent fund or heritage fund. This is typically a savings and investment fund established from the dollars government obtains from non-renewable resource development. A heritage fund will help the NWT to provide benefits from non-renewable resources for future generations who will not have these resources. It will give us better protection from boom and bust cycles, and it will provide a stable revenue source for the government. It can be used to help diversify our economy and ensure a stable economic base in the future when these resources are gone.
A recent study by the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development established that the Canadian government has failed to maximize revenue generation, and they make poor use of the revenues they do generate from non-renewable resources. In their comparison of Alberta with Alaska and Norway, Pembina found that the funds of both Alaska, at $40 billion, and especially Norway, at $400 billion, provide significant benefits to their people. In contrast, Alberta’s heritage fund at $12 billion has stagnated and provides relatively little future security to their people. It’s worth noting that production from the originally huge amounts of conventional oil and gas resources in Alberta has been declining now for years, and those resources are largely gone.
We do not have all the levy tools that many jurisdictions have, and our access to royalties is currently pitiful. Nevertheless, Mr. Speaker, we insist on being open for business and developing our resources as fast as possible, regardless of our ability to manage the impacts. Perhaps it’s through our devolution discussions, perhaps through access to windfall profits enjoyed by the feds from our resources, possibly through an innovative resources tax, but please let’s get off our butts. Instead of squandering the financial benefits from non-renewable resource development, let’s take the example of jurisdictions that have done it the smart way and immediately establish a heritage fund for the future of our people. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
