Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left, I have Dr. Erin Kelly, assistant deputy minister of Environment and Climate Change. To my right, I have Ms. Cherie Jarock, legislative counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here to introduce Bill 39, the Environmental Rights Act. This bill takes steps to modernize and broaden the existing Environmental Rights Act in the Northwest Territories. The bill provides broader rights to:

request an investigation, including clearer timelines and responsibilities of the Minister;

prosecute an offence;

bring forward an action; and

protect employees who have engaged in processes under the Environmental Rights Act.

The bill also requires Executive Council to prepare a statement of environmental values and ensure that departments and select public bodies...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I never thought of that, but I know of a community that does fly a lot of their fuel in, and I don't think you'd want to be paying the prices they pay, and their distance is not as far as the Member's riding. So I have seen that, and that is a creative way of looking at it, but the airline would still have to recover some of their costs, and I do know of a community in Northern Yukon that pays an extremely high cost for their gasoline. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The reason we are here having this discussion on the carbon pricing and our approach to carbon pricing which would help mitigate the impact on people in the Northwest Territories is because we have already asked the federal government to give us an exemption. Because we are here, you know what their answer was. They were bent on implementing carbon pricing; it does not matter which part of the country you lived in. So the initial discussion we had with the federal government is we just want to be exempt, and, of course, their answer was no. They said, "You guys go back...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any motor fuel that is burned will be subject to carbon tax. For those who are hauling it, if they have a garage that relies on heating fuel to keep their garage heated, then that part of it is going to be rebated at the pump. Any motor fuel that they use to haul is going to be subject to carbon tax. Then the cost of living offset, which we were discussing earlier, is a way to help residents try to mitigate some of the impact of those costs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, I would assume that it would be, but I am also confident that this Legislative Assembly would support an initiative that we feel is better for the people of the Northwest Territories than the alternate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We were able to work with the federal government because the original implementation date was July 1st. Because we were still dealing with our piece of legislation, they agreed to push it off to September 1st because we were working on our approach. They could have, in theory, implemented their federal backstop on July 1st until we had ours sorted out, but we have been working with them through all this, so they gave us until September 1st.

If we are unable to do this implementing our own made-in-the-North approach, then I would assume, we would have to have a conversation...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The regulations need to be developed very quickly, so we will get that done, and then, as the next government goes through the main estimates process, there may be other opportunities for input, but the regulations need to be done as quickly as possible, and we are going to undertake that work. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right, I have Mr. David Stewart, the deputy minister of Finance. To my left, I have Ms. Cherie Jarock, who is legislative counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, the regulations haven't been shared. Thank you.