Daryl Dolynny

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee?  Ms. Bisaro.

I believe I heard $24 an hour but I’m assuming it means per diem per day. I’m assuming that’s the number we’re referring to here.

Again, I’m not quite understanding whether or not there was a change in 2007 to the per diem rate for foster care families. It is alleged that $24 was the rate that may not have changed since 1996, as indicated in yesterday’s Hansard, but I’ll leave it at that. The question still is that that there is a CPI index that needs to be looked at since 2007. So, if by minimum compounded standards of 1.83 percent per annum, there would still have to have some considerable...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After a review of yesterday’s Hansard, I’d like to continue where my colleague from Yellowknife Centre left off yesterday during questions on foster families. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Referencing the 2014 Report of the Auditor General on Child and Family Services, it was stated by the Auditor, and subsequently noted by committee, that there was no standardized approach for foster care. Beyond the standard rates of pay for foster parents, there were no territory-wide standards of delivering foster care.

Can the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the Minister for bringing some clarity to the House and bringing some clarity to the committee with the report. I know the Minister has made offerings a number of times in his dissertation earlier about coming back in 120 days with a more fulsome report to us. That said, there was and there is a bit of a strained relationship currently, and I think our report factored that in with the standing committee. There were a lot of moving parts in the last couple of years since 2009, and our attempt was to try to find at least some commonality where language...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Nadli.

In 2000 a Special Committee on the Review of the Official Languages Act, SCROLA, was established by the Legislative Assembly to undertake a comprehensive review of the Official Languages Act.

As a result of this review, the 14th Legislative Assembly amended the act in 2003, clearly identifying Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tlicho as the official languages of the Northwest Territories. These amendments changed the roles of the Minister responsible for Official Languages...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As of December 2014, the GNWT updated their tax regime to a three-tiered system. This was allegedly to match the start of production of the new brewery. However, after speaking to the manufacturers myself, they feel that the 2,500 hectolitre maximum threshold would be met in no time and just when this company is considering market penetration to the South.

Can the Minister indicate how can our local manufacturer, a micro-brewery, expect to be competitive with southern micro-brewery producers when we have the highest energy costs of production in Canada, we have high...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I raised the concern of the overbearing micro-brewery tax system being imposed on our brew pub manufacturing starting up in Yellowknife. When one should be supporting this entrepreneurial start-up business, the GNWT, even by cutting its rate by half, still has one of the highest micro-brewery sin taxes in all of Canada. Sadly, when production increases, many fear with the tax regime being proposed, this will do very little to enhance the true potential of this new industry.

I bud my questions today for the wiser Minister of Finance. There is no denying the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m honoured to second the motion today. As you’ve heard from the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake and his passion, many of us are very thankful that he spends a considerable amount of time doing a lot of research for a motion such of this.

The mover, Mr. Moses, has been a staunch advocate for issues surrounding coroner’s reports. I know he spends many hours reviewing these reports for recommendations, trends and insights and how to make NWT a better and safer place. So when the Member brought forward this motion for committee review, I was taken aback on the incredible...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very much aware of the social impact of alcohol in the Northwest Territories. Sitting on the standing committee, I see all too well all the issues around the Northwest Territories. I believe that this is not impeding this. We’re talking about an industry. Cleary, this government has an opportunity to do the right thing and to re-evaluate this tax regime on micro-brewery manufacturing in the Northwest Territories.

Will the Minister commit to re-examining this tax regime and to bring our tax system with what is considered standard best practice for this type of small...

A very thorough response, but again, we’re trying to start a start-up company. While the admitted markup for beer produced in the NWT has been substantially reduced, as we indicated, it still stands out in significant contrast to lower rates for micro-breweries in every other Canadian jurisdiction.

Can the Minister indicate, what is the competitive advantage of having the highest micro-brewery tax rate in the country while trying to encourage business manufacturing, jobs, tourism potential and attracting what he has proposed, a 2,000 population growth? Thank you.