Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again I will have to get more detail before I even go down that road of folding up positions. I will look at how the work has been done and how that workload has been carried, and from that come back to the Members and provide them information. Through our next business process we can look at some options that would be available to us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the supplementary reserve set for 2003-04 was $15 million net, and the announcement of the action of not rebasing by Ottawa doesn't change it, because that deal is for 2004-05. This supp reserve is dealing with the last actions, or until the end of March. So it's dealing with the 2003-04 fiscal year up until March 31st. Thank you.

Just a comment and again I thank the Member for speaking to the bill. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that amount equals approximately seven months for the 2003-04 fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't speak for what the previous governments did with the money, but what we do in cases if we needed the work done and we didn't have the resources within, that means our own staff, we would look at contracting individuals to take on some of that workload. So that could be done in some cases. As well, it could be used as an area of saving some money from within and turning that back to the consolidated revenue. But I can't speak for the three years. I'm aware of the four positions, unless there are a couple more out there for hire right now and...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, on that second paragraph we put in our estimate of the net gain of going from 12 percent to 14 percent. We are expecting $8 million. We have built that into the budget document that is before all Members in this House. For the 2004-05 year, we are estimating that we will receive approximately $31.750 million in corporate tax. That is our estimate based on discussions with the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would refer that to the Minister of Health and Social Services for that detail.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again I would have to disagree with using an average number of saying every taxpayer in between a bracket of $66,000 of taxable income to $108,000 of taxable income would be paying that much. The Member is right; there will be a number of people paying between $7.54 a year to $100 a year. Again, that fluctuates in between that area. So the more income you make above that taxable limit, you will end up paying more. I agree with the Member, there's going to be a higher impact for those with higher incomes. But, again, just saying an average number, I would have to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. It went from 14 percent to 12 percent.