Date
March
30
2004
Members Present
ITEM 1: PRAYER
Assembly Members
Debates of March 30, 2004 (day 11)
Topics
Statements
Member’s Statement On Taxation To Facilitate Spending In The North
Roger Allen
Inuvik Twin Lakes
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the last two weeks, I have raised several issues related to the economic stability of the Northwest Territories, encouraging the Minister of Finance to look at several tax measures that would be a benefit to the investment in our territory. Mr. Speaker, my researchers have found several interesting items that should intrigue the imagination of our government; none more so than an article on economic development in the Edmonton Journal, dated March 25th.
Mr. Speaker, I quote from the article, “Ireland is the poster child for success, going from one of the poorest economies to one of the richest in two decades.” It seems to relate to our own economy. “It combined an attractive corporate tax culture with education to produce skilled workers for the companies that set up shop there." The article also states that, “an investment tax credit works better than grants and tax breaks since the latter leads to more failures than successes.”
Mr. Speaker, I did, on several occasions, raise the important issue of taxation to facilitate spending and vocational training in the North. Mr. Speaker, knowing that this government is beginning a process of developing a working group on a joint pipeline committee, I would offer that they build into their mandate a component that would address a tax regime. This tax regime could be modeled after the investment tax credit which could be used to reward spending money in the territory and can be broadly available to all industries.
Mr. Speaker, during this budget session we’ve heard loudly that the federal government will not readdress our fiscal situation. The Premier has stated this, so did the Finance Minister, and so did the Minister of Health and Social Services. They were also on record as saying this as well. It is time our Premier and his Cabinet come to introduce some new ideology on tax reform as an indication to the federal government that we are serious about our sovereignty issues. I hope that they will take some of our ideas and, over the course of time, begin to look at implementing some of these suggestions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.