Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Chairman, this is going to be a one-time process. The intent is, as I indicated previously, to have the necessary amendments to the Financial Administration Act in place for the next go-round. The other thing is that we are now doing capital in the fall, and this would give us a more accurate reflection of where we stand as we look at approving projects. Normally the carry-overs and such wouldn’t be dealt with until sometime later in the spring, which would be several months down the road. This gives us, in our opinion, for this one cycle, an opportunity to have a clearer idea of where we...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

As I indicated in the House yesterday, the process is going to carry on until the middle of October. We’ve asked people to provide feedback. We’re pulling together the work from the two day round table, at which point we will print up and release the document with the results and recommendations from the round table. At the same time, we’ll be considering all the feedback. As I indicated, then we will start building our suggestions and recommendations into the business planning process that we’ll be starting in mid-November.

That would require a change, I understand, to the legislation.

The area that is of most interest, the preferred vehicle for everybody we talked to, is the area of new revenue that is not going to come from taxes. The things we have talked about are in terms of the population growing carefully and developing revenue streams in a broadened economic base. For example, the Minister of ITI would be glad to talk to you about the recent diamond cutting operation that has set up an operation in Yellowknife. It is an opportunity that has been realized.

Those are the types of things that I think people are keenly interested in. They tell us as well as the government...

I don’t agree with the label of “fiasco.” The Member himself has asked in this House, if I can quote from page 1194 of Hansard, June 12, where he asked the Finance Minister of the day:

“What is he doing on revenue options? What is he doing to put new revenue options on the table for the Territories to go forward so we can make up for these ups and downs in our revenue stream?”

He further goes on to say:

“The issue really is: when are we going to deal with this issue? The fact is that there are no revenue generating initiatives in this. We’ve heard: We’re going to think about it. We plan to do it...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Within government and financial administration there is some ability to move money, depending on in between activities, within activities. There is a clear process to do that. If a department is managing its budget and they have issued a number of priorities but they have funds they can move within those parameters, then departments have some latitude to do that. The issue of lapses at year-end…. Some money is specifically coffered, as they say, or identified only for the purpose that it was voted for. In government there is some ability to move money within...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re considering, as we look at potential taxes that were laid out in the options paper, that the new ones would probably require new legislation. As well, depending on which tax it is, it would require a new collection and administration. So, yes, those are issues that we have to factor in and subtract from the potential gains from those types of taxes.

First it was Dijon mustard; now it’s red herring. I don’t even particularly care for fish.

However, clearly, Mr. Speaker, we have left everything on the table. As we look at concluding the consultation process, we will look at all the options that are there. I laid out yesterday some very significant potential revenue generators in terms of the territorial nominee program for immigration that we believe could bring in as many as 150 new Northerners a year plus their families. I also suggested and laid out the option to look at fully using the SEAs, socio-economic agreements, which are bilateral...

We don’t have that level of detail, but we can commit to providing it to the committee.