Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I might turn this one over to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have Sandy Kalgutkar, deputy minister of Finance.

Yes, Mr. Chair. I believe I do have some opening remarks. Mr. Chair, over the past few weeks, the Legislative Assembly has been considering the 2021-2022 Main Estimates. In our system of consensus government, Cabinet does not pass the main estimates without at least three supporting votes from Regular Members of the Legislative Assembly. I know there is, at times, a perception that getting these votes would involve deals made one-by-one with individual MLAs rather than through a process that considers the collective priorities of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, it is to the credit of...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Bill 26, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2020-2021, be read for the second time. This bill makes supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures of the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Bill 26, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2020-2021, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 27, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2020-2021, be read for the third time, and, Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A note of caution that, of course, 85 percent of our budget comes from the federal government, so while I'm certainly always going to look for ways to better streamline what money we get and how we can spend it so that we have the flexibility to do things according to our priorities, that, at the same time, the deal that we have, just to be cautious that we aren't looking for greener grass that might not actually be so green. That said, we can't figure out these ideas without having the conversations, and so point taken that those conversations continue to be had. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly, given on the corporate side, there are three large pairs that make up a high proportion of the total corporate income taxes that are coming in to the GNWT. When that particular industry, when the diamond industry suffers a significant loss, that is going to have a significant impact on this line item, even though it is only, as I say, a handful of businesses and all in one sector. Arguably, one solution to that would be is to have greater diversity in the economy so that we're not so reliant on one particular sector and even a sector within that sector, and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. These numbers, all of the numbers with respect to taxes, are generated by the Canada Revenue Agency, so this is a reflection of the fact that as corporate income taxpayers would be paying incrementally over the course of the year based on estimates that are generated often from the year before and not necessarily on what their final actuals for the year might be. When the final numbers come in, the CRA then will, perhaps after the fact, determine what they have been remitting to the GNWT maybe beyond or above what, in fact, will be paid in by the corporations. That's what...

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