Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is Small Business Week across Canada and specifically I want to acknowledge Small Business Day tomorrow, October 25th. Small business in Canada is defined as having from five to 100 employees, but small business owners represent the best of the Canadian spirit. They are entrepreneurs, innovators, job creators and an integral part of our communities, large and small. From coast to coast to coast, Canadian small businesses help drive local economies and keep our communities strong.

Small businesses with less than 50 employees, including businesses with no employees...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to consider Bills 13, 14, 15 and 16.

That’s great. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I’m not quite sure where to start here. With the long-term care, in two months’ time, once you have done your work, you have looked at the work from Avens and you make sure they jive, so to speak. What is the intention? What is the department going to do with the numbers you get in two months’ time? Avens has put out that we need 600-some beds for long-term beds over the next I don’t remember how many years. When the department has numbers that say basically the same thing, what is the intention of the department with regard to long-term care facilities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee wishes to continue with Tabled Document 107-17(4), NWT Capital Estimates 2014-2015, with a continuation of the Department of Health and Social Services, then Justice; Industry, Tourism and Investment; Environment and Natural Resources; and Legislative Assembly. If we get through all those, then we will go through a few bills, perhaps.

Thanks to the Minister. I realize it’s a double-edged sword. I totally understand if we cut taxes, we’re also going to be cutting our own revenue. I thank the Minister for that response.

With regard to the red tape, it is something which CFIB is on about, not just in the North but I think right across the country, and I appreciate the Minister’s explanation of all the things we do provide. But I believe it was over a year ago that this government, I think, through the Premier, made a statement that we were going to do something about cutting red tape. I didn’t hear from the Minister that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Finance, who is going to be up on his feet again. Strange how that works out some days; one Minister gets them all.

My statement talked about Small Business Week and I mentioned a number of recommendations from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business to the Government of the Northwest Territories to try and help small business get ahead and to try and lessen some of the imposition on their bottom line. The first one was that our small business tax rate is one of the highest in northern and western Canada and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to Mr. Moses.

The Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted an active and thorough review of this bill. For the first time in the history of the Northwest Territories, the committee held hearings in schools to solicit the views of students. To facilitate discussion and openness, the format was much less formal than a typical public hearing on a bill.

These sessions took place at the Diamond Jenness Secondary School in Hay River, Ecole Sir John Franklin High School in Yellowknife, Mackenzie Mountain School in Norman Wells, and the East Three Secondary School...

Mr. Chair, I move that we report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one comment, and I just want to say that I’m very glad to see that we are moving forward, finally, on the facility replacement for the Territorial Female Corrections Centre in Fort Smith. It’s been something which is probably three years overdue, so I’m very glad to see that we are moving towards construction beginning in this next capital fiscal year. That’s it. Thanks.