Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to recognize a Page from Yellowknife South, Rivka Peters, and also all the Pages who have been here for the past four weeks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to recognize two Pages from Fort Smith, Finnlay Rutherford-Simon and Madelynn Minute. I would like to thank all of the Pages for their work with us. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like, on our last day, to thank the Pages here who are helping us, including Mackenzie Menacho and Abigail Sewi from Deline, and watching the proceedings here also, the staff behind the glasses here, translation, and Indio, our technician. Mahsi.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would to also like to recognize your CA, Richard Charlo. We called him Little Richie back when. Welcome to the Assembly. Thank you for doing a great job for the Minister. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize somebody in the gallery. He is not a constituent of the riding, but I think he has been a great voice for the Northwest Territories for many, many years, a great voice for CBC, Mr. Randy Henderson.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife North.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for your indulgence. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge Yellowknife North resident and the architect of our fine building, Mr. Gino Pin. Thank you.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Finance on the carbon tax. I know that fuels are exempted from the carbon tax here in the Northwest Territories. I would like to ask the Minister for the people back home, for the constituency, if you can tell us exactly which fuels are exempted from carbon tax? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was a lot of work done with Ottawa on the carbon pricing and the effect that it was going to have on the Northwest Territories. They have agreed with us that aviation fuel should be exempt, and I believe heating fuel as well will be exempt at the pump. Those are the two. I was just checking on the gasoline to see if there was an exemption there. Those are the two that we have for now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to ask the Minister if there will be tax rebates. I notice that all of the jurisdictions that didn't do their own carbon tax system, the federal carbon tax system was imposed upon them, but there were tax exemptions. I want to ask the Minister: will there be tax exemptions for the people of the territories, as well?
Gasoline will not be exempted at the pump, but I think they would have to file for that. As far as the rebates go, recognizing the cost of the carbon pricing on people in the Northwest Territories, that's one of the things we heard the most about as we were touring the Northwest Territories with that particular issue. There will be rebates provided to residents of the Northwest Territories using the made-in-the-North approach to carbon pricing. Had we used a federal backstop, and I think I provided a table at one time; I am in the process of putting that information together. I want to table that document. It is available online on our finance website, but I want to table that document so people in the territories know what it would cost us had we used the federal backstop, not the one that we proposed to the federal government, and good on them for accepting our approach to carbon pricing.
I would like to thank the Minister for correcting me. I was calling it tax exemptions, but I meant tax rebates. Thank you. On the fuels that are exempted like heating fuels and aviation fuel, at some point, I think both of those fuels will be produced in the south and hauled. I want to ask the Minister if the individuals who are hauling heating fuels, like a trucking company, or as we buy the fuels off the rack, and then the transportation costs of that, I would like to ask the Minister if carbon tax is imposed upon the people who are actually hauling the fuel to the Northwest Territories?
One of the challenges that we face in the Northwest Territories, and we made it known to Ottawa, was a lot of the product that we have coming to the territories has to be shipped into the Northwest Territories. We don't produce a lot of our own product, and they understood that. My understanding is that those products that are coming in, they would have to pay carbon tax on that. That is one of the reasons, when we came up with our made-in-the-NWT approach, we thought it would be easier for our residents if we rebated the heating fuel and at the pumps, as well as the aviation fuel.
Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister if the government would look at subsidies based on the remoteness of the communities, or maybe based on income, or maybe based on the fact that individuals are hunting for elders and so on, if there would be any subsidies at all involved in this whole carbon tax scheme? Thank you.
As Members are aware, this Legislative Assembly of the Government of the Northwest Territories does provide a lot of subsidies across the NWT. A couple of things that the Member mentioned on hunting and trapping through the different programs that are offered through ENR, in the Genuine Fur Valley, the Grub Stake Program, they do get some funding through that. As far as coming up with another subsidy, that's not on the table at the moment. As I said again, there are a number of subsidies that are provided through the government, and we believe that one of the subsidies might be able to capture the issue that the Member is speaking of. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions will be for the Minister responsible for Housing. The corporation has this great program called HELP, and it helps people get into their homes and become homeowners, and I think it's a great program. However, recently I've been advised that there were four applicants for four units in the community of Fort Simpson. Two candidates were very successful and very happy to hear that; however, one of the other two were competing now for only one unit because they turned in one of the HELP units into the market house renting. Can the Minister explain why they changed one of the HELP units into a market rent unit? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, it would be inappropriate for me to discuss any specific application and information on our residents here, but if there is no program demand for a particular unit and it does remain vacant, the NWT Housing Corporation can re-profile a HELP unit into a market unit or vice versa. You can't turn a market unit into a HELP unit, but it would be inappropriate for me to discuss any specifics on any kind of application information. Like I said, if there is no program demand, then, we are able to re-profile those units. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I wasn't asking about applicants. I am just saying that I know that there were four applicants, four HELP units. Again, what was the rationale to reduce that one, take one of those HELP units to a market unit, because there are two applicants looking for these types of units?
As I mentioned earlier, units are not profiled to another program unless it is confirmed that there is no demand for the unit under the original program, and that was the case.
If there are four applicants, there are four HELP units, I would assume there was a need. Unfortunately, I guess the corporation has a different matrix of deciding what needs are. It is my understanding that the Housing Corporation is bringing in two more units during the winter months. Are these units going to be HELP units or market rent units?
The Member is correct. We are bringing two market rental duplexes, which equates to four units. These should be ready for occupancy hopefully by March of 2019.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's great news, and I thank the Minister for providing that here today. With these new units coming into place, will that unit they changed from HELP to market be turned back to a HELP unit so residents can have that opportunity to get into this program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The introduction of more HELP units into any community across the Northwest Territories is only considered if there is a demand for the program. Obviously NWT Housing Corporation would like to work with residents to get into home ownership or work with them to get into housing units, but the same is for market units, you know. We have nurses, we have teachers out there who need units to stay in, and we need to find balance. The introduction of any HELP units across the NWT would be considered if there was a demand for the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of my constituents is a trapper who benefits from the ENR's Prime Fur Bonus program, and over the last season he had substantial delays in receiving his payment, thousands of dollars held up for inexplicable reasons. I brought this concern to the Minister of ENR and it has since been resolved, but I am wondering if he can speak publicly to the issue which is affecting the prompt payment of trappers who rely on this extra income. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to stand here and promote one of the best programs that the government offers across the Northwest Territories. As the Member from the Mackenzie Delta said, it is November 1st today, trapping season, and a lot of people are able to access many of the programs through the Grubstake Program and prepare themselves from an upcoming trapping season. They get further benefits when they bring their fur in. They do get an advance on fur that they bring. They send the fur out to the markets, and then depending on how quickly the sale is is how quickly we can get the money back to them. I was glad we were able to resolve the Member's constituent's issue. It is a very successful program, and I am going on a little too long, so I am going to stop there, Mr. Speaker.
I agree with the Minister. It's a great program, but it's really important that we pay our trappers on time, and I know that with my constituent in particular there was a new financial system that was put in place that was the subject of these delays, and I know at the time that I inquired with this they were still, the department was still, working out the kinks. I don't want a Phoenix pay system in the NWT sort of problem, and I do not think any of our trappers do, either, so can the Minister assure this House that this new financial system is working as intended and after this season there will be no more delays in payments?
Mr. Speaker, the fur harvest management system might be the one the Member is referring to. We are getting the kinks out of that. Again I would have to investigate a little further, but I do know that sometimes the delay in getting the money back to the trappers is from the actual fur sale itself. I think in this particular case the way that it was going through the system might have been part of the reason for the delay, and I can assure the Member and all trappers out there, and I know a lot of them personally, that this will not be happening again.
Has the Minister's department reached out to all of these trappers who were delayed in getting paid? Has the Minister's department reached out and let them know what the issues are and can reassure them personally that the problem will not happen again?
Mr. Speaker, my understanding, as far as I know we have had the one concern, and, if there are others, I will follow up and let them know that this should not happen again once we get all of the kinks ironed out of the system. Again, the Member agrees with me, this is a fantastic program. We actually had a veteran trapper up in the delta when we were up there with the meeting, the economic symposium. We had them actually come up to the Minister of ITI and myself, complementing the government on the success of that program with the Grubstake Program and everything else and how successful it's been and how many trappers have actually taken advantage of this program.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I referred to the announcement this week of an additional $1.8 million over four years under the new government Greenhouse Gas Grant program, and I note that this program is aimed at government's reductions of greenhouse gas outputs from non-renewable energy sources. My question for the Minister is: can he tell me why a decision was made to introduce programming that in the end perpetuates fossil fuel use rather than devoting more substantial funds to these governments' introduction of fully renewable energy systems? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we developed the 2030 Energy Strategy we had to go out and have a look at everything and talk to everybody and have consultation about what residents felt that was important to them across all links of government and people in the Northwest Territories, and this was one of the programs in many that we are introducing in the 2030 Energy Strategy that needed to be looked at. It was felt that this needed to be funded in this manner, so it's one of the decisions that came out of that process.
Thanks to the Minister for that. The question that I have is how the Minister balances the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions versus replacing fossil fuel use altogether. How is that balance determined?
