Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at 167. Did I miss a page?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The numbers tell us that yes, we’ve bent the curve a bit on the number of smokers, so we haven’t raised the price of tobacco recently. The one assumption I would make, and I would ask the deputy or Mr. Kalgutkar if they want to add anything further, is that people who are smoking are probably smoking more. I will ask the deputy if he wants to add anything further.

No, Madam Chair. We would have to get that level of detail.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was with Mr. Moses when we met with the Norwegian ambassador and it was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to sit across from a representative of the country that does have a trillion dollar offshore Heritage Fund, Sovereign Wealth Fund that has continued to grow and that reflects their extremely prudent fiscal management and it shows you what’s possible. So I share the Member’s comments that, if we look back far enough, at some point they started with a small pot and nurtured it carefully. So, we have a model that we continue to look to.

As well, I appreciate...

If there is will of committee that they would like some further information on this, we can look at that. The big issue for us – and everyone has seen the budget, the revenues versus expenditures – how do we replace the revenues at this juncture? So we’ve laid out this plan. If it’s the will of the House to have this looked at, we’ll look at it, but I suggest that would be for the 2016-17 fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Deputy Minister Mike Aumond and deputy secretary to the FMB, Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar.

Mr. Chair, part of the struggle in the economy in the resource sector has been a decline in what we initially budgeted for, so there’s been a significant decrease in the expectation of budgeting of that royalty. It’s reflected both in what we’re putting into our share of the Heritage Fund as well as what the 50 percent of federal government gets off the top or the 25 percent that the Aboriginal governments get. I will ask the deputy minister if he wants to add anything further.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present the 2015-2016 Main Estimates for the Department of Finance, totalling $221.3 million. This total includes the $85.4 million operating contribution to the NWT Housing Corporation. The department’s estimates, excluding this contribution, propose a decrease of $1.3 million, or 1 percent, from the 2014-2015 Main Estimates.

Highlights of the proposed estimates include:

an increase of $7.4 million in the contribution to the NWT Heritage Fund. The total contribution to the fund in 2015-2016 will be $7.6 million.

$10.1 million for the transfer of 25...

No, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member could expect to see another rate increase of single digits. The exact amount is not clear to me yet, but we protected against the rate cliff for four years and the price of diesel and the accommodation we have to make for that, the pressures have continued.