Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, want to thank Mr. Dolynny for bringing the motion forward. I am fully in support of this and as Mr. Bromley said, this is not a new idea, it has been discussed a number of times over the years and certainly before my time as well.

Annually, when we look at the budget, we stress over the highs and lows of our revenues and particularly around corporate income tax and then this year, as well, around personal income tax, so this idea would certainly allow us to have a much easier time when we discuss fiscal planning and fiscal strategy. It would certainly allow us to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. My first question on this page has to do with the capital transfers. We’ve got a huge increase from $265,000 to $2.7 million. So what accounts for this grand increase in capital transfers?

Thanks to the Minister for the info. I understand the $6.8 million in passive restraint. That is a number that I can deal with. Capping our forced growth at 2 percent, how much money does that net us? I’m trying to get us up to the $30 million or whatever that we need to find to balance the budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for advising me of that. I’m not suggesting that the government needs to be totally responsible, but legislation, if we put it in place, certainly would provide the need for people to buy and install AEDs. This is a difficult situation. Obviously, GNWT does not have any kind of a policy, we don’t have any department, from the sounds of things, that is responsible for this particular issue.

I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not he would be willing to commit to discussing this issue with Cabinet, whether or not he could then, after discussion...

I think it’s getting slightly less murky. So, we’re still working with an estimate of revenues for ’14-15, so it could go down at any time, I guess, or in May we’ll get a better idea and it could go down. If I understand rightly, the $30 million that the Minister has referenced that we’ve lost is basically revenue in this current budget year. It sounds to me like the revenue we expected in the ’13-14 year didn’t come through. Am I right on that? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for that and I can advise the Minister that there are defibrillators in every NorthMart or in every Northern Store within the territory, which is good to know. So some buildings have them and some buildings don’t. We obviously don’t have a policy within the GNWT and I would suggest that’s someplace that we need to go.

I would like to ask the Minister whether or not we have, apart from what he’s listed, a registry that encompasses all the defibrillators that exist within the NWT, all the places where they are. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I need to ask some questions about the revenues and taxation. I’m still struggling to understand these numbers. The Minister, in his budget address, indicated that we were down about $30 million in terms of taxation, and I think he referenced both personal and corporate income tax when he said that. I just heard the deputy minister say that our personal income tax has gone down, and yet I look at these numbers in the book and I’ve got almost $105 million in ’14-15 for personal income tax and $87 million in ’13-14 for personal income tax, so I don’t get where it has gone...

NWT legislation would provide clear protection from liability, would designate the public places where AEDs must be made available, and ensure that AEDs are registered and properly maintained so they’re ready for use when they’re needed. By setting in place protocols for distributing and maintaining these lifesaving tools, we can protect NWT residents from loss of life. We could be on the leading edge of health care for our residents.

I will have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time.

I appreciate that this isn’t being rushed into. I’m never one to rush into anything and do it post-haste. I just wonder if the review is looking at, and again I’ll call it duplication of services, and the Minister may not agree and that’s fine and dandy, but it’s my understanding that somebody starting a business will need to or can go to ITI for certain things, can go to BDIC for certain things and it seems to me that if we are investing in businesses in the NWT, we would want to make it as easy as possible for somebody to go to one place and get everything that they need, advice from start...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just couldn’t let this section go by without asking about the Business Development Investment Corporation. I recognize that we have the Investment Corporation and they are to support economic objectives of the GNWT, to help the development of northern businesses and so on, but I read the description of activities under the department itself and it seems to me that we are duplicating investment services. We have investment services through the department and we have investment services through the BDIC.

I’ve talked to the Minister about this before, and I guess I would...