Kevin O'Reilly

That is great to hear, that he is going to give it to the House, and I commend him for doing that. It's something I have advocated for a long time, and it could and should have happened with Stanton, as well. Is this a new policy, or is this a one-off?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. How are the regulations going to be put together? Is there going to be any opportunity for the public, industry, large emitters, to comment on the regulations in draft form? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Just sometimes it's actually easier for those outside of government to access federal money, but I am sure the Minister knows that. However, it's never too late to put in place a proper data collection system to help us build the case and rationale for further investment in the arts and cultural sector, so will the Minister ensure that the relevant departments working on the action plan under the Arts Strategy make data collection a priority?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I agree with most of what our witness has said, but the federal government has also agreed that they will return revenues that are collected through the federal backstop to the jurisdiction where they are collected, so there is already a commitment to do that. In fact, that is exactly what the Yukon negotiated.

My point in raising these questions, Mr. Chair, is that we had an opportunity to design a different system. Committee asked to try to work with the department, with the Minister, to come up with options for what our system could look like in terms of making sure that...

I just love the passion of the Minister. I am not criticizing the engagement process that was gone through in terms of developing the Arts Strategy. I am talking about the action plan. These are the specific actions we need to undertake to support the Arts Strategy, and at the core of that is knowing where we are, the kind of information data that will drive how we can improve, and give us the direction of where we need to go. That is what I heard from the leaders who I have been talking to. How is the Minister going to ensure that the new action plan under the Arts Strategy is coordinated...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I will trying to keep this short. I agree no one likes to pay taxes, but sometimes taxes are the price of civilization. However, I think what people want to know is that there has been careful consideration of options. Unfortunately, standing committee did not have options to look at. In the plain-language summary of the bill, the federal backstop information that is presented here is based on rural communities in New Brunswick. Can I have some explanation as to why the federal backstop presented in this paper is about rural New Brunswick? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to recognize one of the Pages, Carter Kasteel, Frame Lake resident. He must be a glutton for punishment, because I know he was here earlier this year, but I want to thank him and all of the Pages for all of the work that they do for us. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In my opening remarks, I talked about Cabinet's crisis climate change plan, consisting of three separate initiatives. We have the climate change strategic framework, the energy strategy, and now carbon pricing. Unfortunately, there are no strong links between the three of them. This bill does not provide for any formal links between the other two parts of the strategy or the plan that this Cabinet has developed. In the absence of that, it is very difficult, I think, for anyone to see and understand how these are linked together and what kind of progress we may be making on...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I guess I had hoped to hear from the Minister on whether this was going to work or not, but we're not going to hear that until we get to a vote. Is that the procedure here?

Merci, Monsieur le President. The fibre optic line now runs from Alberta to Inuvik, a project completed in 2017 that will cost about $95 million and $3 million a year to operate. That fibre link was funded on the understanding of big community benefits down the Mackenzie Valley. Let's go back and look at the record. As early as 2011, the then-Minister of Health was promoting "a very ambitious plan that would provide a fibre optic link to all the communities. There would be cell phones, Internet, TV, all those systems in the community."

When the budget proposal was reviewed in 2015, the Finance...