Robert C. McLeod

Yes, Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the information we have is the contract has been awarded but there was an environmental issue holding up the project. That could be it. I do not know that for sure, but I can find out. It must wait until spring of 2017 to continue the project, which is like right now. But the environmental issue, I will have to find out exactly what that is and let you know, Mr. Blake.

Mr. Speaker, as part of the NWT wide-community based Water Quality Monitoring program, ENR works with community partners in Aklavik and Inuvik to monitor water quality near these communities. The CBM program uses different types of water-quality monitoring equipment to collect water quality samples during the ice-free season. These samples are analyzed and address water-related community concerns and questions. Results from the CBM program are available on the Mackenzie DataStream system and have been shared through regional meetings, brochures, and posters.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. There was a planning study that was done five years ago. This was to update the study that was done, and my understanding is that there was not really too much that had changed in the initial planning study, but this was more or less just to update the strategy that was already done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, marine pollution and litter become a significant concern to coastal countries around the world and here in the Northwest Territories. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, we have recently developed a draft waste management discussion paper to facilitate feedback from stakeholders and community and Aboriginal governments on the development of the study. We anticipate that the waste management discussion paper will be ready for review and comment by Members, stakeholders, and community governments in September. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I will go back to 2014-2015. The carryover was $60,623,000. It actually went up in 2015-2016 to $137,521,000 million, and that was a result of a lot of the federal money that we had that added to that. 2016-2017 was $126 million as the Member mentioned, so the federal money is the one that we have been working with that has brought up our carryovers a bit, but before that the numbers were fairly consistent in around $60 to $65 million. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, part of the cause would be travel costs and that, but to answer the Member's question, that level of detail we do not have yet, but as soon as the details are ironed out, we will share those with committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my right I have Mr. Jamie Koe, who is our Comptroller General for the Department of Finance, to my left I have Mr. Mike Reddy, who is legislative counsel with the Department of Justice. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we are going out for an RFP and it may be fire season in our part of the world, but in other parts of the world, their fire seasons will differ than ours. The interest that we have been receiving is from European and South American countries, so we will have an RFP out and, as I said before, if we can get them, we'll have them sold by the end of the 2017-2018 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, We are here today to review Bill 15: An Act to Amend the Tobacco Tax Act.

Legislation is required to amend the Tobacco Tax Act to allow changes to the tobacco tax collection system, to establish a tax duty stamp to be placed on tobacco products sold in the NWT, and to eliminate the commission paid to tobacco tax collectors. The establishment of a tobacco tax duty stamp will require that all tobacco products sold in the NWT be marked, stamped, sealed or labeled with a jurisdictional tax stamp. The introduction of a jurisdictional tobacco stamp will mitigate risks...