Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm here to introduce Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Cities, Towns and Villages Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Government Operations for their review of this bill. In addition to the two suites of amendments I will present, this bill makes three housekeeping amendments that have been suggested by the Legislative Division of the Department of Justice.

Mr. Chair, tourist accommodation taxes exist in some form in all provinces in Canada, whether in the form of a tax on hotel rooms collected by the province or municipality, or a destination...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Even with the preliminary numbers that we do have, the initial work that was done, we don't have a concrete set of numbers right now. However, that is funding that can go into other areas as we do program services within the government.

In short, we just wanted to look at ways that, as the GNWT, there would be some savings.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As my deputy minister had mentioned, there was a very long consultation process that we had with a lot of stakeholders.

In terms of the GNWT exempt, that came from the GNWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will talk to my Cabinet colleague from ITI with the suggestion that was raised by the Member, and as I said, the revenues that do come out of this, it is going to be our first year, so we are going to see what those final numbers are and see what the City of Yellowknife gets.

Then we also have the other opportunity for the energy retrofits that the city can use. All of this money might not go into tourism. Some of it might go into energy retrofits with some private homes, possibly.

No, I'll take it as commented, I think, for the good comments from the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My apologies to the Member. Currently, we have no intention of prescribing any additional requirements at this time.

From my understanding, there is no other jurisdiction or no other governments that exempt themselves. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I cannot support the motion. Currently, Bill 18 provides an exemption for the Government of the Northwest Territories and individuals on medical travel. It also provides an exemption for persons staying in accommodation for more than 30 days in a row for less than $20 night. The substantial amendment proposed by SCOGO would eliminate these exemptions and instead include an exemption for all residents of the Northwest Territories.

The exemptions included in Bill 18 were researched and analyzed prior to including them in the legislative proposal and formed a key...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and definitely, we will be reporting back to committee on how this is unfolding. In terms of working with the municipality, we will be making sure that we have good communication with the City of Yellowknife, which is the only municipality right now that has shown any type of interest, and we will work with them to ensure that this rolls out in the smoothest manner possible. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I did mention just early on in the questioning here from the Member that GNWT decided early on that it will not choose to tax itself when it's not collecting revenue to offset those costs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.