Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that they had called the spill line and ENR officers went to the site. ENR, we are the lead regulatory agency that ensures responsible parties like the city maintains operations. They meet departmental standards for the protection of people, property, and management, so our officers were on the scene right away. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Government of Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 2-18(3): Report on the Review of the 2015-2016 Public Economy." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Member is correct. We do have a very hard deadline, but we have done a lot of work on this. We do plan on sharing our findings with committee, and one of the challenges we had is that we wanted to get out there and we wanted to get opinions from across the Northwest Territories. Using the federal backstop, we wanted to make sure that the Northwest Territories was wellpositioned to mitigate the effects of carbon pricing on the residents of the Northwest Territories, and I think, through the correspondence and the surveys and the discussions we have had, that we have had a lot of feedback on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the position of the government is, because we see the effects of climate change quicker than the rest of the country, of course we know that is a serious concern, especially up in the Arctic. That is why we have taken steps through the Climate Change Strategic Framework and the carbon pricing paper that we are working on to try and help mitigate the effects of climate change on the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I did point out that you will be able to purchase cannabis legally from liquor stores that are currently under contract with the Liquor Commission, and I did say that we will have a look at the possibility of going out to private retailers. I did not have a timeline on that, and I am not going to give a timeline, but again, because this is completely new right across the country, we want to make sure that we are in a position that we are able to do it right.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, because it is early days, the plan is for the Liquor Commission to assume the responsibility for the importation and sale of cannabis across the Northwest Territories with liquor stores that currently operate under contract to the Liquor Commission. That being said, the Liquor Commission would also consider licensing private cannabisonly stores, once the market is stable with reliable supply chains. That might be where the Member's questions are, where the product is coming from. As part of the “way forward” document that was released in 2017, I believe, we...

I am not quite sure exactly when our briefing is with committee. I will have to get that information, and in the consensusstyle government we work in, we want to share our information with committee before we share with anyone else.

We will have that conversation, but I can assure committee and members of the public that this government will be ready by the March 30th deadline. I know the federal government wants the submissions by then. They are going to review them, and then possibly come out in September with some comments on the material that we have submitted.

Again, I will say, at the end...

We are planning on sharing the information that was gathered. I think we have a briefing scheduled with committee during this session, so we plan on sharing our findings with committee, and then we need to share some of the information we have gathered with the federal government, and then we will be in a position to share with the public as well.

I did not close the door on the possibility of going out to private retailers, which a lot of these liquor stores in the Northwest Territories are, private retailers, but I did not close that door. I did say we will give some consideration as to a specific timeline. I do not have that, but I can assure the Member that we will be giving some consideration, and to answer his question, yes, we will reach out to our counterparts in Nunavut to see what their approach has been. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I take the Member's point, but the approach is to start cautiously. I mean, this is a new activity, and as I said in my previous reply, there is an opportunity, once we get through this, to have the Liquor Commission looking at licensing retailers for the sale of cannabis.