Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following five documents entitled "2017-2018 Water Stewardship Strategy Progress Review Summary," "NWT Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program, 2017-2018 Annual Report and 2017-2018 Project Results," pursuant to section 13(1) of the Natural Resources Conservation Trust Act, "The Natural Resources Conservation Trust Fund Financial Statements for the year ended March 31, 2017," and, pursuant to sections 16(2) and 23(3) of the Species At Risk Act, "Conference of Management Authorities Species At Risk Annual Report 2017-2018," and "Northwest...

As part of our waste resource management strategy, we had a number of conversations across the Northwest Territories. We had a lot of regional meetings, and we had some online questionnaires that people could fill out. We have produced a "what we heard" document. The reason I bring that up is a number of the items that the Member is talking about, some of the priority from the respondents was they would like to see bulky waste packaging and tires, appliances, vehicles, and that removed from their landfill. We continue to work with whoever we need to work with. We have to work with industry if...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very pleased to welcome my wife, Judy, to the gallery and to the Assembly, and she's also a constituent of Inuvik Boot Lake. Speaking of constituents, I would like to recognize Donna Rogers who is a constituent of Inuvik Twin Lakes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I stated earlier, we'll take any opportunity to work with who we need to work with to try to take advantage of some of the empty backhauls that are going out. I can commit to them, and I'm sure our folks in the region are working with them. Again, we have the discussion paper that we released. We have a draft implementation plan that we're looking at presenting to Cabinet very shortly, here. Then we will seek further input into the implementation plan.

So a lot of work has gone into this. We had a number of respondents to our questionnaire. We had 109 people, I think, show up in a lot of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in September and October of this year, ENR worked with two community governments and their contractor to identify and consolidate all their hazardous waste in preparation for transportation on the Mackenzie Valley winter road to an approved disposable facility. The following hazardous materials were a part of this package. There were a number of pallets of used oil, glycol, and this was from a couple communities, vehicle batteries, fuel, contaminated water. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to update Members on our fiscal and economic situation and some of our ongoing challenges.

When I presented the 2018-2019 budget in February, I noted the progress we had made towards our fiscal strategy but also described our revenue challenges, with total revenue for 2018-2019 expected to be about $120 million less than 2016-2017 revenues. This decline in revenue over a two-year period has presented an enormous challenge for our government. We have met that challenge through careful management of expenditure growth, while...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents entitled "Report on the Staff Retention Policy for 2015-2016, 2016-2017 and 2017-2018." Pursuant to section 64(2) of the Liquor Act, I wish to table "Northwest Territories Liquor Licensing Board 64th Annual Report 2017-2018;" and pursuant to section 27(4) of the Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan, I wish to table "Northern Employee Benefits Services (NEBS) Pension Plan Annual Report for the Year Ended December 31, 2017." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the insurance is expected to cover some of the costs associated with equipment failure, including the need to increase diesel consumption. We do have sufficient backup there, diesel and hydro backup to keep the unit operating.

Again, this just happened, I believe, Monday or just recently. Tuesday, October 9th, it just happened, so we are just in the process of doing an inspection and determining what associated costs might be tied to the failure. Again, as soon as we have those numbers or estimates of numbers and what it may cost, we will share that with committee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, looking after the best interests of people in the Northwest Territories is what this government is all about. The impact on electricity cost is not known at this time. Any impact on NTPC cost is expected to be mitigated by the insurance claim.

I mean, first of all, this government did not want to burden people with a new tax. Had we used the federal backstop, which they were going to use regardless, it would have cost people in the Northwest Territories a lot more. I want to make that quite clear.

Through a number of our approaches to carbon pricing - and I do believe that our document is public. I know I have briefed committee on it. I have some feedback from committee on it, so I do know that we have a backstop that we are using. One of the things is the cost of living offset that we proposed to help offset some of that high cost...