Bill Braden

Why is it that all of a sudden we’re about to put the brakes on this and anticipate no change? It just looks as if there’s some kind of an anomaly going on with the trends in the forecasting. That’s where I’d like to put this question. Why, in the face of sustained and fairly predictable increases in the cost of this subsidy, is there no increase forecast for next year? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good. I am pleased to see we are keeping the initiative. These are big pieces of work. We had expressed an intention at the beginning of our term as the Legislative Assembly to focus on this. I look forward to seeing progress on this in the coming year, Mr. Chairman. I certainly would like to avoid a traffic jam, if you will, as our term comes to a close. We have about two-and-a-half years left to make some of these changes, so let’s keep going.

Mr. Chairman, I have one other question. I believe it’s in this area, again, from the business plan. There is an objective to complete a review and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sometimes it’s a bit of a quiz knowing just where to bring the question up, but I think the question I have belongs in this area. It relates to some of the information contained in the 2005-2008 Business Plan that FMB has filed along with the rest of the government, and it relates to the undertaking to do a comprehensive review of the Public Service Act, Mr. Chairman, the act and regulations, with a view to updating the act and regulations during this coming fiscal year.

This is a major piece of work and it is one that I support and look forward to. I wanted to ask the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ll keep my comments to one area and it relates to the transition that we’re undertaking for our government-wide human resources to consolidate this function within FMBS. I think there are quite a number of similarities to the service centre concept that Ms. Lee was talking about with technology that I think has had a reasonably good role. Like Ms. Lee, I must share some complications with my own computer skills, but the service that I’ve been getting from the TSC has been really good.

What I wanted to look at here was the creation of this consolidation. It is a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has volunteered quite a bit of information there. I appreciate it and it’s, thankfully, no surprise that we are behind this bill. I wanted to ask further to this, the NWT has shown leadership in the formation of a National Diamond Council and I wanted to see if the Minister could tell us are other provinces, which are undoubtedly going to be involved in the diamond trade as well, also behind this excise tax amendment and are they also signalling their approval for this amendment? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, thank you. Before the break we were discussing the Power Subsidy Program, and I had raised a question, in my mind, about whether the policy referred to base rates or Yellowknife rates. I had a chance to look at the policy and, for the record, it says Yellowknife rates, which, therefore, of course, gives the FMBS the ability to apply the subsidy according to whatever the rate of the day is. I would take that interpretation of it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to say that I had managed to check into that and that's the finding. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Following World War I, the Canadian government introduced some pretty stiff taxes to help pay for the war effort. Included in these were things like luxury cars, boats, clothes and jewellery, Mr. Speaker. Over the years, those excise taxes have been removed on everything except jewellery. Now this excise tax costs us 10 percent of retail for any item over $3. It is hard to consider today, Mr. Speaker, that that can be considered a luxury tax. The information I have is that 50 percent of jewellery purchases are actually $100 and they are made by low and middle-income...

Okay. So does the policy read that the subsidy program is based on Yellowknife’s base rate or Yellowknife’s rate? What’s the rule of the day? Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. I’m pleased to hear that in this forum. I’m going to be looking forward to that debate and the involvement to see what various communities and customers across the NWT have to say. Electricity is an essential service and it’s a very costly one, of course, in many of our communities. There is though also, I think, a very real requirement, along with some kind of a subsidy or cost redistribution mechanism, for a strong enough price on it, Mr. Chairman, to promote and stimulate conservation. This is going to be a really interesting discussion of this very essential service. Now...

Yes. I’ll get back.