N.W.T. MLAs hammer finance minister over tax-raising proposal

Regular MLAs in the Northwest Territories legislature slammed Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger for considering tax increases to generate more money for the territory.

'We might as well have been asked to go out and ask our constituents if they'd like us to poke them in the eye with a sharp stick.' Jane Groenewegen, Hay River South MLA

Miltenberger has floated such ideas as raising taxes on individuals and introducing a sales tax, among numerous other options finance officials are exploring as the territorial government finds more revenue sources.

"We might as well have been asked to go out and ask our constituents if they'd like us to poke them in the eye with a sharp stick," Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen told the assembly Thursday.

The government had planned to cut spending by $135 million over this fiscal year and next.

But in a fiscal update Thursday, Miltenberger said that plan was thrown off track when regular, or non-cabinet, MLAs threatened to vote down the last budget over various proposed cuts to government jobs and programs.

"So there was a number of adjustments made throughout the budget process, and we put positions back, we added some money back as we tried to accomodate and still move forward," he said.

The government's cost-cutting target is now down to $111 million over four years, Miltenberger said.

As a result, finance officials are now trying to make up the shortfall by finding more revenues than it had planned.

MLAs urged the government not to consider anything that could add to the rising cost of living in the North. Instead, some proposed a resource tax and finding innovative ways to get more people who work in the N.W.T. to live there.

The government estimates more than 2,000 people working in the N.W.T.'s mining industry live and pay taxes elsewhere.

Miltenberger said he continues to consider all options for raising revenue.