Apologies for not offering the question properly. I appreciate the response from the Minister. He did not really address the issue, though, of carbon pricing as an essential tool. Earlier today I tried to jog the memory of our Cabinet colleagues on the issue of carbon pricing. The public commentary for the discussion paper and survey closed on September 15th of last year. Can the Minister of Finance tell us if and when a "what we heard" report is going to be released and whether the written submissions received will also be released?

Merci, Monsieur le President. I'd like to start with something really simple: can the Minister of Finance tell the public whether our government actually believes in climate change and that carbon pricing is an essential tool to address this threat? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I would like to start off on the issue of the land rights negotiations. The Minister indicated that there is an additional $595,000 in this year's budget for it. That is likely a good thing, but this comes after two years of cuts within the department and its capacity to negotiate. It is good that we are trying to work towards that. I guess I'll have some questions about what that funding is really going to be used for.

The other thing I want to say about this is that there is a joint committee of Cabinet and Regular MLAs to talk about some of these issues, but it has never...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I will use my reply to the budget address to set out some of my thoughts on the following, as I did last year:

A quick summary of the 2018-2019 budget and fiscal context;

A review of what I recommended in my reply to the 2017-2018 budget address;

A description of the process for the 2018-2019 Budget and how it might be improved; and

The good and the bad of the 2018-2019 Budget as proposed by Cabinet.

Let there be no mistake, Cabinet continues to cut programs and services to fund surpluses that are being used to pay for large infrastructure projects such as the $67...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister responsible for Public Engagement and Transparency on his lengthy statement earlier today. He had to reach back in time to 20152016 and quote some figures from the main estimates, but can he tell me what is in the current main estimates of 20182019 in terms of royalties from minerals, oil, and gas extraction here in the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Once again, I would like to thank the Minister for his response. That is good news. Yesterday he committed to reviewing GNWT support for the arts, and he has made some additional commitments here, in my view, today. I really hope that this review is going to be more than just pulling together the current support across at least two departments and then concluding that everything is just fine. Clearly, structural change is needed to bring an improved focus to this sector and to better leverage federal funding. Can the Minister tell us just what he is going to...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I don't think I can top that. I appreciate the response from the Minister, and I know staff work hard to get money out the door and so on, but we could be accessing a lot more federal funding, as well. There are over 15 funding programs listed on a Heritage Canada website that could be used to support arts activities and initiatives in the NWT. They cover everything from performing arts to capital investment opportunities. Can the Minister give us a snapshot of what federal program and capital funding the NWT received this year for arts-related activities and...

Merci, Monsieur le President. A Legislative Assembly e-petition has been started asking that some of the funds raised through the Western Canada Lottery program, which now go entirely to Sports and Recreation, be used to fund arts activities. This issue was also raised during the recent public hearing on Bill 1, the Western Canada Lottery Act. At that hearing, the MACA Minister left open the door a crack to develop a definition for recreation, but only in consultation with the sports and recreation groups. So how can we go about improving our government's investment in the arts?

Later today I...

Merci, monsieur le President. I have two documents I wish to table. The first is a letter dated November 20, 2017, signed by over 40 individuals and organizations involved in the arts to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment regarding funding increase and comprehensive strategy for performing and multimedia arts in the Northwest Territories. The second document, Mr. Speaker, is a letter from the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment dated December 19th in reply to the...

Thanks again to the Minister for that commitment. He will pull together the information. We will get it. The currently prevailing plan for promotion of the arts is the 2004 NWT Arts Strategy, and it states as its goal "the coordination of programs and services that will ensure more effective and efficient use of available funds." As a means of achieving this goal, will the Minister commit to examining the amalgamation of all GNWT arts funding, production, and marketing programs under the leadership of an arm's-length NWT arts council?