Caroline Wawzonek

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: 20232024 Main Estimates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, at this point overall public awareness and opportunity for engagement with ITI broadly, and at different stages of the development of the Mineral Resources Act and its regulations, started back in 2017, back with the development of the Mineral Resources Act, back with understanding what the public's general desire and wishes were for that piece of legislation. There was a fulsome consultative process at that time. None of that is lost. All of that has filtered back now into the process of developing the regulations. And in the regulation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, this work arises from the mandate document that is published on the GNWT's website, specifically under the priority commitment to adopt a benefit retention approach to economic development, a commitment that was agreed to on behalf of the Assembly, and then the mandate document that was determined thereafter where it says, host a socioeconomic forum with representatives from the mining industry, Indigenous governments, and the GNWT, to identify ways to work together to increase the socioeconomic benefits from resource development.

In fact, Mr. Speaker...

Mr. Speaker, the federal backstop is not going to be providing individualized COLA payments or individual payments based upon communities in the Northwest Territories. More likely than not, and I can't say for sure because I don't know what they're going to do. I certainly had no control over the fact that they decided to change their program to remove the fact that they're being a connection to the pricing signal, remove the exemption for heating fuel. That was entirely a federal decision. If we put ourselves into that, into their system, we have even less control over what happens with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so, again, the carbon tax is not a tax of the making of the Government of the Northwest Territories. It is a federal tax. But by trying to maintain our own system to it, we're well placed or better placed, in my view, to be responsive to the needs of individual communities, including those of the residents in Nunakput. So what the Department of Finance has done is calculate what we would anticipate both the direct and indirect costs of the federal carbon tax would be and we've divided up based on three zones of the Northwest Territories high fuel use...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, there has actually been quite a lot of public engagement in the last six years, quite a lot of feedback provided, not the least of which even includes the dialogue within this House. That is not lost. There's always public servants listening to everything that's said here. There's public servants that attend every public briefing in standing committee. There's been public servants involved in this work, again, since 2017, getting a very solid and thorough understanding. And now the work has gone through a process of codevelopment with Indigenous...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to pick which question I'm going to answer, Mr. Speaker, but let me see how many of them I can get through in a reasonable amount of time.

There is a fairly detailed report, Mr. Speaker. It's extensive, it's lengthy, and it certainly is being produced in the context again of a massive project under the Mineral Resources Act to develop regulations that will apply to that entire act under multiple streams, including socioeconomic agreements, which right now, Mr. Speaker, are not policybased. They're one by one. That's not how we want to do this...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that I will deliver the budget address on Wednesday, February 8th, 2023. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Additional Information for the Return to Written Question 5419(2), Carbon Tax and the Cost of Living. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Boot Lake, that Bill 71, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 20232024, be read for the second time.

This bill authorizes the Government of the Northwest Territories to make appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the 20232024 fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.