Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Finance Minister regarding taxation policy. A communication company has approached the Northwest Territories government and wanted to talk about creating a better or more appropriate taxation environment for investment and communication equipment and they’re trying to expand throughout the Northwest Territories, but at this time the monopoly seems to have all the corners covered and it’s very discouraging for a new business or a small business to invest in the NWT if the taxation climate isn’t favourable or reasonable or certainly one that is welcoming.
Can the Minister of Finance give us an update as to what type of taxation policy and flexibility do we have to create tax holidays that encourage investment, growth and long-term revenues for the Government of the Northwest Territories, and at the same time encourages job growth that we so dearly, direly need? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we are doing as a government is investing over $80 million in a Fibre Optic Link that’s going to go all the way up and down the valley. It’s going to hook in all the small communities. It’s going to create tremendous business opportunity for the final mile piece in the communities in terms of all the services that need to be provided for, the infrastructure to support those services.
So we see this approach, and the Member touched on it in his statement, about it’s not so much the taxing, it’s the creating the conditions for economic development and that’s what we see our focus on. If the Member would rather me try to give a smorgasbord of what may be possible for what the Member calls tax holidays, I’m more interested or we’re more interested in tax fairness. If he has a specific suggestion, I’m happy to discuss that. Thank you.
Governments have been very generous on tax holidays and I see his point about, well, let’s just put one particular issue on the table, but often we hear, well, we shouldn’t single out an industry. So now I’m hearing we should single out an industry. So I’ll say, would the Minister be able to create a tax environment that invests in communication equipment? He so rightly highlighted the $80 million investment in the Fibre Optic Link. Well, here we are drawing the attention of the world. Why don’t we expand a little further so that attention of the world gets investment in our communities through a communications taxation scheme that encourages the investment and will demonstrate long-term job growth and stabilized revenue that meets our needs?
Thank you. Our corporate income tax is, I believe, 11.5 percent, which puts us somewhere in the middle in terms of corporate taxes across Canada, middle to the lowest, I think on the low side. Our small business tax is, I believe, very modest, as well, 4 percent I believe. So when the Member talks about a tax holiday for telecommunications, for certain telecommunications, he’d have to be clearer. It’s maybe not that easy to say that there’s going to be a lot of implications and why we would focus on one particular industry when I’m sure that we would be able to hear a very strong case from just about every sector about why they should all be given tax holidays. Thank you.
I’m not talking about every industry. I’m talking about ones that we’re spending a fair bit of money in. We’re spending $80 million on the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link, which is a great thing. Well, let’s support that with a tax structure that supports new investment. New investment means new taxation opportunities. If people don’t invest money, we don’t have taxation opportunities, no growth. That’s what I’m talking about.
So what is wrong with developing a climate that encourages new investment, which would be new taxation opportunities? Thank you.
I would argue quite strenuously that the $82 million investment in the Fibre Optic Link is just the kind of investment that the Member is talking about. We’re putting in critical economic infrastructure that helps create the conditions for development.
When you are in business, there are all sorts of write-offs, depreciation, capital investments, construction investments that can be written off. So, once again, the Member is making a fairly sweeping statement. He’s decided that the focus should be a certain aspect of the telecommunications industry and it’s not clear enough to me how he would make that justification and not other sectors or why not the whole area. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister can say what he wants, but the fact is this Member is trying to do something and the Minister is trying to defend the status quo. The point is we have to encourage investments, outside investment, in order to create growth and jobs. That’s all I hear is lip service from this government. Here’s a real opportunity, Mr. Speaker.
Will the Minister go back to the table and say how can we target markets to encourage investment in the Northwest Territories? As far as the Mackenzie Fibre Optic Link, we are paying for it and we don’t tax ourselves. We want outside investment coming to the NWT. I’ve heard this for years about how we want to get people and money here, so this is how we do it.
Will the Minister take it back to the table and ask his officials, who all like to say no, to find a way to do it other than finding a way not to do it? Thank you.
The erosion of our tax revenues is an issue of concern, as I pointed out in our budget address. Our corporate taxes are down many tens of millions of dollars. So, once again, the Member is standing up saying we should make an investment. I’m saying an $82 million investment in digital infrastructure, fibre optic infrastructure, gives tremendous benefit and ability for people to do business, for telecommunication people to do business with cutting edge, top-of-the-line facilities is the kind of investment that government should be doing. If we just said we were going to give an $80 million tax holiday and have nothing to show for it, people would say, what are you doing? Now, we can say we are going to spend $80 million of taxpayers’ money. We’re going to put in a fibre optic link that is going to create a huge economic opportunity in Inuvik, remote sensing site, global capacity and global significance along with every community down the valley is going to have fibre optic connections and all the business opportunities that flow from that, to me, is the kind of investment government should be making. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
