Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories committed in its mandate to develop a strategy to manage the resources and potential economic and environmental benefits derived from household, commercial, and industrial garbage from private sector sources in our municipalities.

As part of fulfilling this commitment, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is currently engaging residents of the Northwest Territories on the development of a Waste Resource Management Strategy. We have already seen success with removing recyclables and electronics from...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in our correspondence with committee, one of the recommendations they made was a possible addition to the funding to the NWT Arts Council. In my correspondence back to committee, I have made that commitment in the form of a supplemental we would be bringing forward an increase to the contribution to the NWT Arts Council of $200,000.

As far as which areas in the Northwest Territories are actually going to be affected the most, I mean, I think the initial plan was some of the lower-priced properties won't have to pay as much, obviously. If you're living in a jurisdiction that has a fairly good economy and the prices are quite high, then your taxes are going to be reflective of that. Again, we're in the process of putting the information together, and I'd be more than happy to, once we have that put together, sit down with the appropriate committee and have that discussion and seek input from them.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Regular Members have come to the government and challenged it with trying to find other revenue options, and this is one of them. We are working and currently targeting the fall of 2016 of the Legislative Assembly for the introduction of legislation that would authorize the collection of land transfer tax. There will be opportunities coming forward for our committee to have some input, and obviously we would have to go to them before we get to that stage. There will be opportunities there for them to have input. We will provide them with all the details...

We're always reaching out to folks out there to get their input on how they're affected by a number of different issues that are facing the Northwest Territories, such as climate change. We actually don't even have to reach out to them. They reach out to us and point out some of the challenges that they're facing, too. I think it's critically important that we continue to work with them, hear what they talk about, the challenges that they face, and then we'll have a discussion with them on some of our options and some of the things we're working on going forward, because it is a critical issue...

My understanding is that the federal government has to pass legislation to legalize cannabis. I do not think we have the ability as a jurisdiction to do it on our own, because it is still illegal according to the Criminal Code, and that would have to be changed. I do not think we have the ability to enact this legislation on our own without the federal government passing their legislation to legalize cannabis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the federal government does not pass legislation, the current laws will remain in place. There is not much we can do but continue our work to get ready to implement once they do pass legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I look forward to having the conversation with the Member because we're always interested in some of the concerns that are raised across the Northwest Territories. Not only on this particular issue, but other issues. I look forward to having that conversation. I will commit that I will follow up on any discussions that we may have as far as the timeline. As I said before, we're developing the terms of references and, as I become aware of the timeline when we actually get this out, I will keep the Member and this House informed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

First of all, we would like to think that the folks who are working for the GNWT first of all will look at getting value for money in the products. If there are situations such as the Member described, then I would not approve of that and I would have to get to the bottom of it and do an investigation into using friends and such. Going back to the Member's question, that could be one of the parts of the review, is to have a look at how it has impacted smaller businesses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this time and opportunity to recognize my wife of 38 years, Judy, who is up in the gallery, also a constituent of Inuvik Boot Lake. I would also like to use this opportunity to recognize two of the Pages we have in here from Inuvik. We have Keely Voudrach, and we have Breeanna Lennie. I would to thank them and all the other Pages for the work they do on our behalf. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.