Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we proceed the next few weeks through the budget process, we’ll be able to show how already the money that we received from Canada and our own sources, that we are spending it across the board to deal with all individuals in the Northwest Territories. More importantly, on the work that’s going ahead now on the Mackenzie gas project, our involvement from the broad perspective of all the residents of the Northwest Territories is going to go through our representations of the JRP, or Joint Review Panel, as well as NEB, the National Energy Board, and what we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the debt situation that we face is a serious one and a critical one for the Northwest Territories. It’s an issue that we’ve raised before. The reason why we developed our fiscal responsibility policy is to show our counterparts in Ottawa, with federal Finance, that we can deal with the issues given the right tools. So we need to continue to work with the federal government and push it, and push hard, to have them remove that debt limit because, ultimately, when you look at what’s before us, the repayment of the 2002 corporate tax overpayment from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the relationship we have built to this date with the aboriginal governments and groups across the North has been a positive one and growing, and I think with the spirit and intent of that in place, the Premier is having his discussions with the leaders about where we need to go, the next steps that need to be taken. So they’re involved. We feel they’re important to the development of the Northwest Territories as we look further down the road to self-government agreements that come in place and are enacted. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that Bill 18, Appropriation Act, 2006-2007, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the financial front, our negotiations have been working with the Aboriginal Summit and leaders across the Territories. We continue to do that. For the specific details of where certain files are sitting, I would have to have the Premier try to provide some information there. But on the front overall, our stance is still the same. We have to work together in the Northwest Territories with our partners in the North being aboriginal governments and organizations, to come up with a common message so that we can, in fact, show that we are unified in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've not only in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon and provinces across Canada have raised the issue of fiscal imbalance with Ottawa on a regular basis; in fact, to the point where Finance Ministers have pushed on it so that the Premiers have now become involved and directed through the Council of the Federation that another panel be established. The federal government has recognized it by establishing an expert panel. We need to see what their reports will come out as, and then what will the federal government do with those reports, what...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is my honour and privilege today to stand before you and Members of this Legislative Assembly to present the budget for the Northwest Territories for 2006-07. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my Cabinet colleagues and the standing committees for their input, particularly for the committees’ work on pre-budget consultations.

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This budget comes at an historic time. Many of us have looked ahead with hope to the day when the Northwest Territories would be self-reliant and strong, with a thriving economy, jobs and opportunities for our people. Today...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before we get to radical solutions or options that may be out there, there's a new government in Ottawa. We have to take a different stance, we have to get the message to them, and I'm looking for the opportunity I get to sit down with the new Finance Minister to see if he thinks the arguments, the business case that we put forward is adequate or not adequate to go with what we're asking for. That will then entail what we'll need to do as a jurisdiction. But ultimately, the message that is initially sent out about fiscal imbalance is a good one....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I announced back in our last sitting, the corporate tax situation we faced, we went from projecting a surplus of about $40 million down to where we are identifying now…In fact, at one time we predicted we would go into a slight deficit position. But because of adjusting our budget, we’ve managed to stay out of that area. But the immediate impact of our higher tax rates and the fiscal arrangements we have in Ottawa right now is that companies have started to move their file to other jurisdictions. In fact, as well, our estimates of companies paying...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We know that in the upcoming fiscal year, the year we’ve announced, July 1st, in that fiscal year, it is in abeyance. It’s a three-year agreement that could go to five years, as some of the indications that we’ve received. Ultimately, if a new arrangement is made with Ottawa and federal Finance about the fiscal arrangements in place or that will be put in place as a result of the expert panel report and the Council of Federation work, we’ll have some discussions about that risk and reward sides. Right now it is punitive. If it were to come back with the existing...