Caroline Wawzonek

Mr. Speaker, it's -- I mean, I may have my own personal views as well but let's keep it to the processes here. And, Mr. Speaker, if or when this tax gets cancelled on a federal level, this Assembly can certainly expect to be revisiting that issue as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's quite a range of items under this. So as I mentioned, the sort of action committee that's formed from across departments, one of the very first tasks that they, in fact, have is this particular action item. It's to ensure that there are mechanisms and effective mechanisms so that employees can provide feedback and suggestions and in a way that they feel safe.

Mr. Speaker, we do still have, of course, an MOU that exists for safe disclosure that is, frankly, underutilized and so happy to have this opportunity to remind folks that that is there for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the line of questions. This is yet one more of the suite of things that we are trying to address and trying to implement across the human resources processes within the GNWT. We have, as a part of responding to this, now implemented the national standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace across the GNWT. So it creates a very specific target by which staff can understand what their rights are and what the processes are and whereby supervisors and managers can have some toolkits available to them.

With respect to that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, when this first went out a year ago, or about 2023, rather, for rounds of consultation, the proposal was to do an approach where we would have First Nations, Inuit, Metis persons or members or descendants from groups within the Northwest Territories' boundaries as a first priority and all Indigenous Canadians second priority. As I said, there are a number of people within the Northwest Territories, Indigenous, who -- part of that process and said, look, this doesn't capture me, please, can it be more inclusive. Again, there's no policy that's going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're not looking to take away benefits from Northerners. Firstly, the definition under the affirmative action policy isn't always what people think it is. You can be born in the Northwest Territories and move to anywhere else in Canada. You are still going to be benefitting as a P1. So it's not necessarily as simple as all that. And, yet, that reality has been on the books for 35 years. So there's lots of folks who come up to the North, who live in the North who are not P1s. In fact, they have no category or status whatsoever. There's folks who may live...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the work of committee. I was relatively agnostic towards most of the recommendations and quite happy to just accept them and to -- yes, again, I'm not on the committee. It's a lot of work to go through these things. I'm glad they've done it, and I appreciate the recommendations. This one, obviously, has come up now, and there's been a lot of discussion. I have had a lot of opportunity over the last five years to sit in the witness chair during Committee of the Whole between different departments, particularly the Finance. It is actually a great...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have on many an occasion provided this House, both this government and the last, with my own frustrations with this carbon tax and the bit of stink I've raised with the federal Ministers responsible for putting us in the situation we are in.

Mr. Speaker, certainly, again, happy to go and look at it and if there's a way that I can appropriately and responsibly get ourselves out from underneath this tax, that's fine. It's not really a time where I necessarily want to try to stick it to the federal government or make something difficult or suggest that we're...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, until there's a change in the federal legislation, we are still obligated to comply with some form of carbon taxation and so, again, pending what may or may not be happening on a federal level or when, then we will certainly want to make sure that we're ready, and it's very helpful and handy to have something at the ready when that day comes. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Budget Dialogues 2024: What We Heard; and, Fall 2024 Economic and Fiscal Update. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad there's no time on the clock because I can just keep going as long as I'd like, I guess. Mr. Speaker, I have long said that there's a large challenge in the North with respect to the way that the carbon tax parameters are placed upon us by the federal government. The majority of the actual tax revenue does still continue to go back to residents, firstly in the forms of COLO payment, but then secondly in the forms of a number of other subsidies. I spoke to some of them yesterday. There's a territorial power support program. There are direct contributions...