Robert C. McLeod

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

The federal government has come up with the carbon pricing. They have a federal backstop. I think the Member previous to you spoke on federal backstop and his non-support of it. If we went with the federal backstop, then the costs would be a lot higher. We are coming up with a made-in-the-North approach. That is going to look at a number of different groups across the Northwest Territories, and I assured the Member previous that we are going to do what we can, we will do what we can, to mitigate the effects of carbon pricing on all levels of people in the Northwest Territories. It is high on...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) No. 4, 2017-2018. This document provides for an increase of $29.2 million to the operations budget.

Major items in the supplementary estimates include:

$20.7 million for demand-driven, non-discretionary items such as out-of-territory hospitals and physicians, extended health benefits and Metis health benefits, and the Residential Southern Placement Program;

$959,000 to provide for the Hay River Health and Social Services Authorities' pension plan, and $181,000 to provide increased...

The Member is correct. I mean, we have looked at a number of different options as to how we are going to roll this out. A lot of the feedback we got from the engagement, there were a lot of suggestions in there as to what we could do with the revenue from the carbon pricing. We have looked at a number of different options. I have laid out some of those options to committee. I am looking for some feedback from committee as to our approach going forward, but again, I can assure the Member and members of the public is that our government is doing what we can to mitigate the impact not on the cost...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that the school was getting close to their capacity; if not this year, I think these would have been required soon, or these would have been required eventually.

We are just in the final stages of our modelling. We still need to have discussions with the federal government. Of course, at the end of the day, our goal is to mitigate the impact it is going to have on people in the Northwest Territories. Again, once we have had those discussions, once we have more information to share, we will make it all public because the public needs to know. We can't pre-empt our discussions with the federal government and release it to the public just yet.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 9, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 2018-2019, be read for the third time. Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize two Pages today working this week in the House, Phoenix Crevier-Walsh and Harvey Havioyak-Kaladhok. Thank you for what you are doing.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it has been adjusted. It is a part of the base funding for next year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.