Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I believe we're in the final stages of negotiating an agreement with a supplier, and once that is finalized, we will give committee a heads up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, to my right, I have Mr. David Stewart, who is the deputy minister of Finance. To my left, I have Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, who is deputy secretary to the FMB. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm here to review Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act. The purpose of this proposed legislative amendment is to increase the authorized limit set out in Section 6 of the Revolving Funds Act, from $6.5 million to $12 million, to recognize the growth of operations of the NWT Liquor Commission since the limit was last increased in 1990. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Early indications are, for the federal government, this is one of the projects that meets their vision. When we put a good business case forward, I think the federal government will be receptive to helping us to see this project come to fruition.

It is something that fits into their mandate, and it's something that early indications are they have kind of looked at this project favourably. Whether that translates into significant investment remains to be seen, but we have to ensure that we have a fairly solid business case going forward.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the discussions on the territorial financing renewal are well-advanced. It is important to remember that this is described in federal legislation, as opposed to an agreement that is negotiated.

Currently, there is a general agreement on a renewal, and the changes proposed by the federal government are minor and relatively technical in nature. We were pleased that there weren't any significant changes that would reduce our grant. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am not sure about the plans, but a lot of those folks out there who are in that type of industry, they know where some of the fires were, so there is an opportunity for them to go into the riding. We would hope that members of the constituency would be the first ones to try and go take advantage of the harvest, but I am sure that those who are in that industry, those who pick them, do know where the fires are, and if there is an opportunity, they would go there and pick them.

As far as promoting it, I would have to check with my colleague at ITI to see if there is anything in the works on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I apologize for missing the Member's fantastic statement. I hear the Member's point, and I have seen pictures of the fire that they had. Let us hope that we don't have those types of situations again this year. We try to work with the communities in fire smarting their communities.

I believe there was a local FireSmart representative workshop that was held in Yellowknife recently in March. I am not quite sure who the participants were. I understand there were 24 attendees from Communities, Lands, and a few other departments. I will work with...

Mr. Speaker, there was a lot of work that went on on carbon pricing since the federal government came up with the initiative to implement carbon pricing, whether it was welcome or not. Our challenge was to do a lot of work, a lot of background work, to see what the effect would be on the people of the Northwest Territories and try to mitigate the effect on the people of the Northwest Territories. I think we have come up with a fairly good proposal in doing that. That is why we told the federal government that we will not be using their backstop. We did some numbers using their backstop, and it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we did send a letter to ECCC with our planned approach to carbon pricing, and we also told them that we do not intend to use their backstop. So we will be having discussions going forward, and, when we are in a position to, we will release the results of our findings.

It is important to remember that the formula is designed to fill the gap between expenditure need and our own source revenue. The federal government view is that we are not penalized when the grant goes down if our revenue increases, and as the gap changes between need and own-source revenue, the grant should change. As the Member knows, the formula is very complex, and there are components built in to ensure that we benefit as our tax base expands.