Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member pointed out in his Member's statement before, P3 projects have allowed the government to allow their dollars to go further and make further investments in infrastructure, which is a benefit to the people of the Northwest Territories.

When a project is undertaken as a P3, a specific part of the agreement is negotiated with respect to local and northern content. A good example of this is our latest P3 project that we just completed where there was $71 million of that particular amount that was spent on northern businesses. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Yellowknife is the only community in the Northwest Territories to operate a paper and cardboard recycling program, funded through municipal taxes. It has recently encountered challenges in finding markets for these materials. My understanding is the city is currently stockpiling these materials onsite in the hopes that markets improve in the future. Packaging and printed paper are identified in the strategy as target material for waste reductions and diversion efforts over the next 10 years.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government has made a commitment at the beginning of this Legislative Assembly to support the effective co-management of our caribou herds. As you know, many of our herds are experiencing rapid declines, and it is our shared responsibility as a government and a territory to promote their recovery.

Range plans are a vital part of how we work together to co-manage our caribou herds and provide guidance to decision makers, developers, and communities to manage activities on the land in a way that supports healthy caribou populations.

Mr. Speaker, today, after years of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let's just be very clear on something. I did direct my staff to reach out to Canada and work with them on further clarification at the wish of committee. I have done that.

To the Member's comment about the people of the Northwest Territories not having an opportunity to comment on this, well, first of all, this piece of legislation was given second reading in March and given to committee. They have had six months. They determined that they weren't going to take it on the road, and that would not allow the people of the Northwest Territories to comment on this critical...

Yes, apologies, Mr. Chair. I should have spoken to this right away to give a bit of an explanation. The amendment allows the Canada Revenue Agency to administer a separate interim program that will allow a cost of living offset payment to NWT residents and families in October 2019 and April 2020. The differences between the interim and regular payments are that there are only two interim payments and four regular payments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We did get a letter from them, and we thought that could be sufficient information for committee. Apparently it wasn't, so I asked staff to talk to Canada and see if they could further clarify that with a firm date, and they came back and did it, because committee didn't think our first piece of correspondence was sufficient, nor did they believe it.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that clause 4 of Bill 43 be amended by adding the following after proposed clause 3.5:

3.6.(1) In this section,

"first offset year" means the period that begins on July 1, 2019, and ends on June 30, 2020;

"initial offset amount" of a taxpayer means an amount that the taxpayer is deemed to have paid under subsection 3.5(3) during October or April in the first offset year.

(2) For the purpose of subsection 3.5, in the first offset year, the months specified for a taxation year are October and April.

(3) For the purpose of calculating the initial offset amount, the...

The Minister can confirm that the time on that was 1:01 p.m.

Thank you. Just very quickly, Mr. Chair, the amendment in subclause 3.5(3) is to link the two interim payments that will described in my next motion, option to the annual cost of living offset calculation. The Canada Revenue Agency is unable to administer the cost-of-living offset benefit until July 2020 but has offered to provide interim benefits for the first year of the carbon tax under a separate program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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