Some minor changes, but Handley gets his budget
Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 12/01) - Fifteen minutes after the Legislative Assembly passed the Territorial budget, Commissioner Glenna Hansen bid MLAs "Digoo."
With that word of thanks, the Legislature recessed until June 7.
The Commissioner's assent of five bills, including the budget, capped three weeks of work for MLAs.
In the final week of sitting, the Legislature sat late into the night to clear the decks of any legislation the government wanted to pass.
Finance Minister Joe Handley's budget passed with only minor changes.
The government will see no revenues from its proposed hotel tax.
The bill died on the order paper after the Legislature's Committee on Governance and Economic Development decided not to support the bill.
The Finance Minister says he is "pretty satisfied" that his budget emerged relatively unchanged.
Handley's proposed heating fuel rebate was also modified.
Originally, the $320 rebate was to be payable to persons whose incomes were no higher than the average income in their communities.
But a coalition of MLAs argued that the rebate should be extended to persons above those thresholds.
Handley responded by making the full rebate payable to all households earning up $75,000, and providing a smaller rebate to households earning up to $85,000.
Tu Nedhe MLA Steve Nitah said he would have preferred to see the extra money allocated to the heating rebate put into tourism.
The rebate program, he said, "is a band-aid solution on top of a band-aid solution."
Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger said the session made him "quite happy as an MLA."
The government's willingness to bend on the fuel rebate and other issues pointed to the "good benefits of consensus government."
