Kieron Testart

Mr. Speaker, it is pretty obvious by now that I am committed to advocating for more open and transparent government. With Right to Know Week being celebrated the week of September 25th to October 1st, and with international Right to Know Day being held on the 28th of September, I think it is appropriate to remind the government of its mandate commitment to increase transparency and accountability.

Mr. Speaker, international Right to Know Day originated in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2002 with 15 original countries signing on. Since then, the popularity and scope of Right to Know Day has grown immensely...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate again where my honourable friend is coming from on this one, to create a service as an interim measure, so I guess I cannot ask this question directly. I will just include it in the debate.

It would be lovely if a member of the government's side could offer some clarity on their position on this issue and whether or not they have contemplated the regulatory issue that I have raised earlier today. Apart from that, I have nothing further for the honourable Member, and I am pleased to support his bill. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate how this bill was designed and the problem it is trying to solve. I think it is important that we offer low-cost funeral services for Northerners, but there are some technical questions I would like to ask the honourable Member who is sponsoring this bill.

In the current version of the Public Health Act, it would appear that there is authority to regulate funeral services and the disposal of human bodies. Now, this bill corrects that by being explicit and brings more clarity to the act of cremations, but what is missing from this bill seems to be that it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know this bill and many like it are very technical in nature and contain a lot of legal matters that are significant for how governments operate and how the legal community operates.

I think most average readers can understand what the Minister laid out for the changes, what this bill does, in his opening comments, except for one, which is the Carltona doctrine. I raised this in the review of the standing committee. I understand it now, but I'm hoping, for our listeners to these proceedings and for the future of our Hansard document, that the Minister can properly define...

I do not want to impose anything. I want to implement a carbon tax that is going to reduce our emissions, protect our environment, and support our clean growth economy. The Premier wants to do that, too. He signed the same declaration. I am glad we have the model, and I am glad we have all this information, but are we going to be able to implement all this information by the deadline in 2018? It is fast approaching, and we are still in the middle of the second round of consultations. Could the Premier provide some clarity on that? Are we going to hit our deadlines?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Premier if he can provide some clarity on his position towards carbon pricing. He has both made statements that he is supportive of the Pan-Canadian framework, and also that he is seeking an exemption. For those people who do not want that tax, that is a confusing message. Can the Premier clearly lay out his vision for a made-in-the-North carbon tax? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, early this week the Premier gave a bold and uncompromising statement on putting the NWT first and bucking Ottawa's efforts to make decisions for us. While I have some sympathy for the Premier's position, I wonder why it has taken us so long to get our footing on this issue of carbon tax because, if we don't have our own made-in-the-North carbon tax, Ottawa is the one who is going to be deciding how it works here, and for that, the responsibility is this government.

The initial climate change deal was signed in December of 2016, and engagement for carbon...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly appreciate that. There is only so much that can be done with this type of legislation. Now, I know that there are funeral directors operating in the Northwest Territories who have certification from the Province of Alberta, and, in other examples in the Northwest Territories, we often use Alberta's qualifications, or we use other provinces', as well.

Has the honourable Member from Frame Lake had the opportunity to have that discussion with a representative from the government side on doing something similar, of applying Alberta's qualifications to our funeral...

Crystal clear, Mr. Chair. Excellent job. Thank you. Nothing further.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The nice thing about revenue neutral tax that puts money back into people's pockets is that they can pay for fuel at the pump, which right now is increasingly getting out of reach as our cost of living continues to climb. My final question for the Premier is: how is he working with our Indigenous government partners beyond this consultative effort? How is he working directly with them to ensure that their interests are respected in this process? Can we get an answer to that? Thank you.