The issues in the north are very many, varied, and challenging, but the issue of attracting and keeping residents in the Northwest Territories who face the very high cost of living is a real one, and the tax deduction is one that does affect northern workers. Many northern workers do take advantage of the tax. In fact, I would say that most people who live here and file tax returns and who earn income up here do take advantage of it.
One aspect of the north is that, yes, there are very many people who fall into the low-income category, but we also have those with high nominal incomes. The incomes are high because the cost of living is high, but given the progressive nature of our tax system, that doesn't recognize the fact that costs are high. People get moved into higher tax brackets because their wages are higher to cope with the higher cost of living. It pushes them into higher effective tax rates. Also, because a lot of benefits delivered through the tax system are income-based and they have higher nominal incomes, they are cut off from those benefit programs sooner than they would be if they had similar real incomes in the south. So the northern tax deduction--