Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 26, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2010-2011, be read for the third time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 27, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2010-2011, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 25, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 2011-2012, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill authorizes the Government of the Northwest Territories to make operations expenditures for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 26, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2010-2011, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The intent has been and continues to be right from the start, that any taxes that we were looking at, but in this particular case, the carbon tax, it was premised on the assumption that we would be looking at it within the context of making it revenue neutral so it didn’t raise the cost of living. It would look at dealing with carbon emissions and such but making very carefully structured if it was going to be considered, but it was always within the context in the North. Anything we do with taxes, anything we do in terms of revenue generation, we have to be very...

In the next number of weeks we will conclude looking at what feedback we got from committee and we will look at how we can adjust the policy which we will then send back to committee for their review.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re still working on the document we’ve had. As the Member indicated, we visited committee and we presented the work that we’ve done. We presented the work that was coming out of Canada in terms of their thresholds and how they approached the issue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a number of fronts on this particular initiative where we’re looking at the Greenhouse Gas Strategy, which is underway. It will be done sometime this spring and summer and that will encompass the broad discussion of how do we control our emissions and our carbon footprint and what are the things we have to do in terms of standards and other options in terms of moving forward to be as responsible as possible. We’ve also committed through the Finance side to do work on the carbon tax. We’ve assisted with this workshop that the Member was at last week and that...

Mr. Speaker, the most immediate example I can give is the electrical rate restructure was done that, in fact, lowered the price of commercial power in the Member’s communities in his riding by many cases 30, 40 or 50 percent and would have, in our hope and our plan, to have an effect on the food basket costs. That is probably one of the single biggest things in the life of this Assembly that has been done, an issue that has bedevilled Assemblies since before the 13th Assembly where we have tried to deal with the issue of the power rates to push for a one-rate zone but that particular decision...

Mr. Speaker, first, to reassure the Member, tomorrow we are going to give third reading to the budget bill and it is going to get assent by the Commissioner. In that bill, there are no new taxes.

There is work being done, as we discussed it in the House today with Member for Weledeh, in terms of the Greenhouse Gas Strategy. There was a roundtable held by the group Mr. Bromley was part of on looking at having further discussions on the carbon tax. All that work is going to be pulled together and it will be there for the consideration for the 17th Assembly and then there will be very careful...