Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I made a statement on the idea of a junk food tax. My question is to the Minister of Finance.
What level of taxing authority does the GNWT have in implanting indirect taxes on goods and services sold or bought in the NWT? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have the authority, listening to the Member’s statement, to set some taxes in place as they pertain to some of the substances that the Member was talking about. We also do things like liquor, tobacco and those types of things as well. Thank you.
Earlier I also made the comment that some provinces, such as Quebec and Ontario, are seriously taking the lead in terms of implementing taxes as a deterrent to the lifestyle of their citizens because they realize the significant costs it incurs down the road to the health care institutions.
Would the Minister of Finance agree to follow the lead of those provinces and begin examining the idea and concept of perhaps coming to a point where you could come back to the House with a proposed idea of maybe putting a tax on junk food? Mahsi.
We, as a government, have been trying to use taxes as a way to encourage, in effect, behaviour, especially as it pertains to cigarettes and alcohol. We have some of the most expensive cigarettes and alcohol in the country. We’ve just recently raised the price of loose tobacco, and our smoking and drinking rates, unfortunately, across the board haven’t shown a lot of bending the right way. We haven’t bent the trend, as they say. We continue to monitor through it that way.
If there’s an interest in committee to look at some type of tax on sugar, I’d be prepared to have that discussion. It’s much more complicated than it sounds on the surface, on junk food, but we’d be prepared to definitely engage in that discussion.
Thank you. It seems that at this point – you know, sugar is a candy – and recent studies have indicated that if you consume it, at least for diabetes, and we have a high rate of diabetes here in the Northwest Territories. Recent studies have indicated that sugar intake on a daily scale could lead to some forms of cancer.
Would the Minister, perhaps in the next session, indicate to the House whether it could be probable for the Minister of Finance to categorize the junk food tax as a form of sin tax? Mahsi.
The definition of sin, of course, is one that’s been debated for centuries. The issue of classifying sugar as a tax similar to tobacco and liquor… I mean, junk food similar to tobacco and liquor is a discussion we can have.
Once again, if you look at the literature, the debate and the complexity you get into in trying to define your term very, very precisely for taxation purposes is not without its challenges. We’ve been spending a lot of time as a government trying to look at active living, productive choices, Drop the Pop, Don’t Be A Butthead, getting people and young people to make the right choices, babies born healthy. Taxing the way to good health I don’t think has shown to be that successful, but once again, we’re not averse to having that discussion with committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Would the Minister agree that a tax on junk food could be a possible source of badly needed revenues? Mahsi.
Given the prodigious appetite we have in the North for things like junk food, if there was a definition that was agreed to and a tax that was agreed it, it would maybe generate an initial spike of revenue, but if the Member’s rationale proved out, then the demand would drop off precipitously. But it could be, if all the stars aligned. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
