Debates of February 3, 2006 (day 22)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am going to speak today about our budget process and how I feel that Regular Members need to have more input into major decisions, especially considering the constant state of flux that our funding arrangement is in with Ottawa.

In the Northwest Territories, we are supposed to operate in a consensus, consultative way. The Finance Minister advised us two years ago that, according to the formula his department has, it was in the best interests of the Northwest Territories to raise the corporate tax rate from 12 percent to 14 percent. Logic and common sense would dictate that if you raised your tax rate, corporations would file outside the Northwest Territories where they would get a better rate. Some of us even tried to tell the Minister that, but the Minister basically said to committee that day that this had to happen and that they were not afraid of big corporations filing elsewhere; a risk that they were willing to take.

The problem is that corporations did file elsewhere, and the first indication of this was the $30 million restatement of corporate tax revenue that the Finance Minister advised Regular Members of in the fall, and hopefully the decision in this year’s budget to reduce the rate from 14 percent to 11.5 percent will be an incentive for corporations to keep their tax files here in the Northwest Territories.

The problem I have is that the $30 million mistake, I mean reinstatement, hits the government hard. The Finance Minister only advises us that this is happening. As Regular Members, we have had no input or discussion regarding the reductions that were required. Cabinet and the Finance Minister send the various departments scurrying around trying to identify one percent reductions. As Regular Members, we only get the finished product. Our ability to give advice or be consulted is overlooked. It’s funny how it works when government comes forward with supplementary appropriations, we go through them and approve the spending. However, when it comes to reducing government spending, we don’t get a chance to debate or discuss these reductions and how they should take place. I would like to see the Regular Members consulted on government-wide reductions at the earliest opportunity, so that perhaps we can make suggestions to the government and to the Finance Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Finance Minister at the appropriate time.

---Applause