Michael Miltenberger

Thank you. We appreciate the Member’s point and we are of the same mind, that whatever we do has to be tailored and reflect the realities of the Northwest Territories as an individual and unique jurisdiction. We are doing the work in both areas, both on the Finance side and Environment and Natural Resource side, to pull together the best information that’s available so that we can set all the pieces in place for the incoming Assembly to make an informed decision, hopefully as quickly as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the third time.

Mr. Speaker, the issue of our carbon emissions targets taxes has to be seen within the broader context in which we are trying to do through the Greenhouse Gas Strategy and the recognition that we all see as Northerners, the majority of us Northerners see of the rapid and dramatic and visible effect of climate change and what is driving that climate change in terms of world population and, of course, the anthropogenic or human-caused emissions.

In the North, we are very carbon dependent, as the Member indicated. The question is, what do we do in order to be responsible citizens of the country of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The intent has been and continues to be right from the start, that any taxes that we were looking at, but in this particular case, the carbon tax, it was premised on the assumption that we would be looking at it within the context of making it revenue neutral so it didn’t raise the cost of living. It would look at dealing with carbon emissions and such but making very carefully structured if it was going to be considered, but it was always within the context in the North. Anything we do with taxes, anything we do in terms of revenue generation, we have to be very...

In the next number of weeks we will conclude looking at what feedback we got from committee and we will look at how we can adjust the policy which we will then send back to committee for their review.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, March 4, 2011, I will move that Bill 25, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 2011-2012 be read for the first time.

I give notice that on Friday, March, 4, 2011, I will move that Bill 26, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2010-2011, be read for the first time.

I give notice that on Friday, March 4, 2011, I will move that Bill 27, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2010-2011, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me the deputy minister of Finance, Margaret Melhorn; John Monroe, the director of fiscal policy; and Mr. Ian Rennie, legal advice and legislative counsel from the Department of Justice. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act. This bill is the result of our collaboration with the Department of Justice and the Canada Revenue Agency to ensure the NWT Income Tax Act remains harmonized with the federal act pursuant to the Tax Collection Agreement between the two governments.

Besides minor changes in terminology, the proposed amendments relate to the following:

revising definition of “adjusted income” for the purpose of calculating territorial Child Tax Benefit;

Child Tax Benefit entitlements in a shared custody situation;

deductions...

I am also here to present Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2010-2011. This document outlines a net increase of $800,000 for capital investment expenditures in the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

There are two items in the supplementary estimates:

A negative supplementary appropriation of $150,000 which represents the transfer of capital investment expenditures funding to operations expenditures funding for the maintenance costs associated with the NWT Laboratory Information System.

$950,000 for the reconstruction of a section of the Inuvik Airport taxiway. The net impact on...