Floyd Roland

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, there is one way of looking at this. If we say we are going to take a percentage of this or take all the revenue that would come back to general revenues, which is used for programs and services delivered by Health and Social Services and the sales decline and the money starts to drop, what do we do then? The way we do it now is the Department of Health and Social services would come forward with a request for funding and ask for increases if they have new programs and services they want to deliver or enhance existing ones. With that, we would review...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, ITI is the department that is directly involved with the polishing itself, on setting up the 10 percent allocation for companies in the North. Maybe the Minister would have that information of who is actually being able to draw down on that 10 percent. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the Liquor Commission has the revolving fund. That fund is paid back into the GNWT general revenue and used for programming throughout the Northwest Territories. So in a sense, it already comes back to the government and is used for programs. It is not specifically targeted, but it comes back to the government and we use that money to help run programs and services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, you're correct that that is not included in this process as it has not been calculated. That was a different action taken by a different department, so we don't have that information available today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when you look at the total proceeds outside of the estimates fees we had received for the polar bear trademark, up front dealing with the number, we're about $4.5 million.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, yes, when you add this amount that we're accounting for through the supplementary appropriation to the initial amount that was recorded, we're totalling a $6.5 million loss to the GNWT. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the work on the federal expert panel has started, as well as the Council of the Federation panel has been announced and their work is starting. The one with the federal government, the expert panel, is from the federal government viewpoint looking at the whole area of equalization formula financing and will report back by late 2005, around December. The Council of the Federation panel which has a slightly more open mandate to look at both at what we call a vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalance, on that side of it they will be reporting back around...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that Bill 10, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, be read for the second time.

Madam Speaker, this bill amends the Revolving Funds Act to decrease from $5 million to $1 million the maximum fiscal year end debit or credit balance in the petroleum products stabilization fund.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.