Kevin O'Reilly

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it would be fair to say that the way that this bill has been crafted is that the committee, Regular MLAs, are not able to make any changes to it. The only thing that this bill does, and I have said this before, is set out what the carbon tax rates will be. All of the decisions around what the rebates, the grants, how the money is going to get spent, are made at the total and utter discretion of a future Minister of Finance and by Cabinet. What's the point? The bill could not be changed anyways the way that this had been put together. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

That's all I have, other than I think that it was unrealistic for committee to have do all of this work and provide quality results for our residents. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am not going to flog this one any further, other than to suggest that the department should develop some kind of an implementation plan, share that with Regular MLAs in the next Assembly, and make that available to the public so that they know how the bill itself and the provisions in here are going to roll out over time. Some pretty high expectations have been set, and maybe some expectations have been crashed. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's interesting. I hadn't heard that before, so I appreciate the heads-up moments before it is going to come to the floor. As I understand it, Alberta had a carbon tax change in government there. They took away the carbon tax. Can someone explain to me what the implementation date is for the federal backstop in Alberta now that there is no carbon tax in Alberta? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think that we are going to probably have some further discussion of that. I think one of the last committee recommendations in its report was that, of course, the time is going to run out for the Minister to have to respond to committee's recommendations. Given the amount of work that the public put into commenting on this bill, and the amount of work that standing committee spent on reviewing the bill and providing comments and trying to negotiate changes, is the Minister prepared to commit to providing a response to committee's recommendations before the end of this...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I couldn't quite catch it all. I think the Minister said 24 months. Why would it take one or two years to actually bring this bill into force? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do have some questions, if I can, and then I think I feel compelled to say some remarks in response to what I have heard from the Minister. If the bill is passed, what date does the Minister intend to bring this into force? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Am I to understand, then, that this is a barrier moving forward, that there may be new developments that happen in the Northwest Territories that require significant financial security, and our government is not going to be in an a position to accept that, and the taxpayers and the environment are going to be at risk? Is that what I am hearing? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I would thank the law clerk for that clarification. I just would like to address some of the arguments that I heard from the Minister. He said that a few other jurisdictions, or no other jurisdictions, at least perhaps in Canada, required financial security become mandatory. I don't think many other places in Canada have a Giant Mine in their backyard that is going to cost taxpayers well over a billion dollars.

This provision that's in the Commissioner's Land Act right now was carefully considered by a previous standing committee, and actually agreed to by a previous...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to table the following document. It is the webpage from the Department of Health and Social Services, "Applying for the Extended Health Benefits for Specified Disease Conditions Program." Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.