Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to present Bill 2, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, No. 2

Bill 3 would increase personal income tax rates for higher income earners, effective July 1, 2004.

Because this income tax measure will be effective in 2004, we need to advise the federal Minister of National Revenue of our new rates before April 15th of this year so that they can be administered by the Canada Revenue Agency. In order for these changes to be implemented, this bill needs to be passed in this sitting of the Assembly.

Bill 3 would increase personal income tax rates for...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, for that detail, I would have to ask the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development to provide that.

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.