Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk a little bit about the environment and the consumer. There’s little to no question that global warming is a reality. Permafrost is melting, carbon emissions are up, greenhouse gases are all over the place. There’s a lot we’re doing in this government to help, but more can be done. I’d like to applaud ENR for their support of the Arctic Energy Alliance rebates for vehicles and other high-energy-use equipment and machines. But it’s time for us to think about other areas where we can really be working on reducing emissions.
I’ve been doing a little bit of research lately with my constituency assistant, and we’ve been looking at auto-registration rates in other jurisdictions around the country and around the world. It appears that many jurisdictions have actually gone into a tiered auto-registration rate that is based on different things. In some jurisdictions they’re using weights of vehicles to have different rates for registration. In other jurisdictions they’re using carbon emissions. In other jurisdictions they’re going based on mileage. I think it’s time for us in the Government of the Northwest Territories to change how we think about registration. In the Northwest Territories we have one rate. It’s about $87 a year regardless of the type of vehicle you’re using, whether it’s low emission or high emission.
As a government I think it’s one of our responsibilities to help encourage our consumers to make better, or more productive, environmentally responsible choices. As such, this afternoon I’ll have some questions on our registration system for the Minister responsible for Transportation. I understand we’re currently implementing a new registration system for automobiles. Now would be the opportune time for the Department of Transportation to do greater research into a tiered registration system that could take into consideration things like mileage or carbon emissions, which would help the consumer make choices that are more environmentally responsible.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
