Merci, Monsieur le President. The Premier has made statements in the past resisting any form of carbon pricing but later signed on to the pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change. Can the Premier tell the public and the Regular MLAs the Cabinet's current position on carbon pricing for the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The Honourable Premier.
Mr. Speaker, we have had briefings with committee. There is another briefing scheduled with committee on Wednesday, and we have been very clear in our briefings. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the briefing that we are going to get, but it is not public, as I understand it. I guess we will wait and see. As I said in my statement, the federal government recently released a technical paper on its backstop carbon pricing scheme that will apply to all provinces and territories. What is our government doing on the issue of carbon pricing, and when will that be shared with Regular MLAs and the public?
As I have said many times in this House, we will be doing what the people of the Northwest Territories tell us to do. We have been holding roundtables throughout the Northwest Territories. We have been inviting people from the smaller communities to attend these roundtables, and we will be tabling in this House a report on what we heard, so that all of the people in Northwest Territories will know what we heard. Also, we will be releasing an NWT carbon tax discussion paper in June, so that we will have another round of consultation with the people of the Northwest Territories. We feel that it is very important for us to have a very clear understanding of what the people of the Northwest Territories want us to do in this regard.
Thanks to the Premier for that. I appreciate that we are finally going to get a discussion paper going on carbon tax here in the Northwest Territories. Can the Premier just give us any sort of insights into what will be in that paper? Will it discuss different forms of carbon taxing and what we actually do with the revenues? There are a couple of different ways of looking at the revenues. One is to rebate part of it back. The second is to invest some of it into renewables. Can the Minister explain whether that discussion paper will consider the issue of what to do with the revenues raised through a carbon tax?
My expectation is we will take into consideration all of those aspects with regards to a carbon pricing mechanism. We certainly have been given assurance from the Government of Canada, directly from the Prime Minister, that we are going to work together on a solution. It will be very important for us to fully understand the implications of carbon pricing before we make an actual decision on how it will be implemented. All of the areas that the Member raised, it is my expectation that the discussion paper will raise.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the Premier for that commitment that those items are going to be dealt with. On March 1st, the Premier promised to provide a carbon modelling and pricing reports of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and the Environment. Can the Premier explain why this report has not been shared and when he intends to provide it to the committee and to the public? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that we have been doing modelling on the various implications of carbon pricing. The Member quoted two cents per litre, 18 cents per litre over five years. I can tell you that it is higher than that, but we have been doing that work. I will check in to see where that report is at, and if it is ready, we will release it.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
