Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not going to beat around the bush; I love beer and beer loves me.
---Laughter
I know in just a couple more months, Yellowknifers will get a chance to enjoy the brewing sensation of local Old Town start-up of Miranda and Fletcher Stevens’ NWT Brewing Company.
In recent years, the micro-brewing industry has grown across Canada, and while micro-breweries comprise a small percentage of national beer production and sales, this manufacturing industry has grown substantially and the North is ready to once again enter into production.
If you were around in 1992, then you would remember Victor MacIntosh and Doug Strader who opened the Arctic Brewery Company, which was the first micro-brewery in the Northwest Territories. Although the quality of beer improved during its production years, it was better known for its peanut bar atmosphere and unique airplane wing as its serving bar. Its closure did spark some concern in the day as to why the government would not do more to preserve such a unique tourism attraction, and questions still remain today that beg us to ask what more should we be doing to support entrepreneurial start-ups like the Fletcher’s.
While following the news in December of 2014 about the GNWT easing restrictions on the flat rate manufacturing tax on every litre of beer sold in the territory, I still saw this as a serious threat for a new manufacturing business.
Small-scale brewers across Canada have identified obstacles to their business and beer tax regimes. Cited most often is not keeping pace with changes to the industry, and I have to agree with them.
So, after a thorough review of the Canadian landscape on micro-brewery tax regimes, which I tabled yesterday in the House, it became evidently clear that although the GNWT offered some easement in December of 2014, its current amended formula is still one of the highest formulas in the country and I want to know why. Why would this government impose a tax program that would set the bar higher than the rest of Canada? What good is it for the success of economic development when targeting a new start-up business with such a high manufacturing tax?
What does this higher tax regime say about the government’s value to support tourism potential or enhance economic innovation and diversity to allow competitive market penetration or, better yet, employment opportunities? Clearly, we have the power to do not what is easy but to do what is right and give this business a leg up on what could potentially be the biggest success story of manufacturing in our northern history.
I’ll have questions later today for the Minister responsible. Thank you.
