Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, firstly, the carbon tax rebates goes to those who are tax filers. So I would encourage everyone, even if they're getting rebates, even if they don't think they have to pay taxes on whatever they're receiving, they should be filing their taxes or at least filing a notice of tax with the government, and then that would give them, first of all, access to these rebates and, I believe, probably others, such as the child care or child rebates. But, Mr. Speaker, what the carbon tax offset payments by the Government of the Northwest Territories does is there's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, again, Mr. Speaker, some people are finding that if they've sent incorrect banking information or if the banking information has been sent or has been inputted incorrectly as I've noted, so there may be a time where a payment doesn't get issued or that it's been delayed, so again, yes, in those instances, someone wouldn't receive a payment. They then there is a notification email and phone number that folks can make contact with to confirm whether or not they have been had their payment issued or whether or not their payment has gone through. In those cases, those...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure which question to start with. I wasn't expecting them today. I am receiving quite a number of inquiries, and we are working through each one with respect to this program. This was a program that we started up quite at the last minute in the midst of the evacuations. And building on the last exchange that the Premier just spoke to, we were faced with an unprecedented situation and we're doing our best to try to create a program to support individual residents in the midst of our own staff having been evacuated in most cases.

So I am aware that there's quite a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't change the cost of fuel. I can only impact on the costs of the tax and rebates for the tax. And to that extent, our rebate system was taking into account the higher costs of the tax. So the rebate system we design in fact more than paid for the average cost of impact of carbon tax on average residents in the Northwest Territories. Anyone that paid or filed their taxes saw that rebate in October, saw a rebate again in January, and they will see another rebate coming in April adjusted with the heating fuel impacts here.

So, Mr. Speaker, we aren't...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also have some thank yous I'd like to take the opportunity to share today. Firstly, this campaign period was, of course, delayed because of the wildfires and the evacuations, and I want to start by saying thank you to all of those who supported our efforts in responding to the wildfires, from the firefighters to those who stayed here in Yellowknife to support efforts in Yellowknife to protect the city, the EMO staff, city emergency staff, and so many public servants and volunteers all working together. So much was accomplished, and I am very grateful...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge my parents. Ed and Bev Wawzonek are in the gallery here today to actually watch what the Assembly looks like. Thank you for coming.

And, Mr. Speaker, I have one more acknowledgement. I don't see my young page in the room right now, but I know he's around. Ben Mager is a resident of Yellowknife South. We are always very grateful to have the pages here with us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, aviation gasoline and jet fuel is exempted still for now. Who knows what the feds might do next? But it is exempted for now. But most certainly diesel, gasoline that powers all the trucks that carry a lot of our cargo, that carry the other fuel to heat the homes, that power the barges that bring our much of our resupply to communities, those fuels are under the carbon tax.

Mr. Speaker, I've said this before, that the federal government does go to international conferences, acknowledges the fact that other developing countries, developed without access to...

Mr. Speaker, I most certainly will not attempt to describe or explain what the federal government did or did not do with respect to the carbon tax. Mr. Speaker, I can say, just for the sake of information, that community electric power generation for communities is exempted. And obviously, again, our cost of living offset is meant to then adjust to the fact that we know that not only will expenses for in a household be going up, but business expenses go up and some of that will then spill over into individual consumers. And so what we tried to do was adjust our cost of living offset to...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Bill 100, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures) 20242025, be read for the third time. And, Mr. Speaker, I would like to request a recorded vote.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, unlike the Member for Nunakput, there's quite a number of residents that actually, I think, are from Yellowknife South. I'm not going to recognize you all. I'm going to do one thing. I'm going to highlight that we have these nice little forms people can fill these forms out when they come and visit us here in the Legislative Assembly and they can tell you where they're from, which constituency they are. So if you are from Yellowknife South and you didn't fill it out, I'm sorry, I'm not going to get to you. But one person did. Mira Dunn filled out this...