Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, would the Finance Minister agree a good place to start, when he considers his tax initiatives and the cost of living, would be maybe to start collecting on some of the IOUs — that money owed to us by the federal government, that $100 million of health money for NIHB? Wouldn’t that be a good start to this rather than firing people or adding new taxes?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government is flirting with a trend to encourage business as well as people to leave. We’ve all heard about the silo of government, and I am just curious. I’m just trying to get a sense. Does the Finance Minister, Minister Miltenberger, understand that there is a cost of living committee out there?

My question to the Minister of Finance is: how do his potential tax initiatives dovetail with the cost of living committee, which is intended to lower the cost of living of the average citizen up here? How does it dovetail? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, let me give this Finance Minister a lesson. If we encouraged 2,000 people to our territory, that would cover our shortfall. By the way, that means 60 people per community. We can encourage a grow with the North policy, as opposed to taxing them to death. Let’s start on some of those migrant workers, as has been articulated clearly here.

In closing, the financial gaps are big; imagination is low. As one person told me yesterday, it’s time that we start showing some backbone with some mineral tax instead of milk tax. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Why aren’t bonuses tied to rate increases? In other words, if rate increases keep going up, why do bonuses keep going up? Why do bonuses keep getting awarded?

I didn’t really hear the answer. I heard that if the rate rider they want doesn’t get approved, it has to be taken back. It’s seen as a shell game that appears as if it went down, but it didn’t. My question really is, once again: have the actual base rates, including the riders, et cetera, over the long term actually gone up or gone down?

Mr. Speaker, who is really going to pay this? It’s not going to be the rich, because they can afford those big, fancy accountants. It’s not going to be the poor, because they don’t have anything to take. So this is going to keep coming down to the middle class groups that will keep paying this.

And you know what? You haven’t broadened the base. I’ve not heard of one single initiative in my lifetime so far out of this Finance Minister that will see us broaden the base. What is he planning to do for us to see real results in broadening the tax base of people of the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister is all well and good, but we have to assume someone can still be here to be able to afford those.

This is starting to look like a tax shift, just like the Liberal plan by Dion. We’re going to tax on one end but encourage both on the other. It’s confusing, it’s ridiculous, and I think it affects the bottom line of common-sense people at their kitchen tables.

Looking at the blend between the tax initiatives and the cost of living, what effort is this Minister putting in to make sure government is functioning properly through a program review that looks at the basis of how...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to be clear: are the professionals employed by the Northwest Territories government putting our citizens first or the private contract that they’re providing to Nunavut?

Case by case is pretty thin, to be honest. A parent who has a child with autism can only receive a few hours a week for OT therapy as well as speech therapy. The problem is that the amount of time a week they receive for therapy here in the Northwest Territories is what is provided in Alberta for one single day.

My question once again is: would the Minister be able to look into the situation and develop a framework so these parents accessing money through Yellowknife Health and Social Services can use some of that money to access more — and private — speech and OT therapy that’s available?

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize a few guests in the gallery. We have a group visiting from Lacombe, Red Deer, Alberta, visiting family and friends. Their names are Ken Morton, Norma Camman, Ben and Marg Linkletter, Everett and Marion Joselyn. As well, in the gallery, we have Ed and Joan King from Lloydminster. Welcome to the Northwest Territories.