Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Finance. We know that the federal government, through the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, is going to ask the country to implement a carbon pricing scheme of some kind. Our government has signed on to that agreement. I would like to ask the Minister, since public consultation has now come to an end, what is the government's vision for the new carbon tax regime? Are we looking at a tax, or are we looking at a cap and trade? Can the Minister give us an explanation to that effect? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
As the Member noted, the consultation period just ended and we are currently reviewing all these results. We are also working with the Government of Canada to better understand the impact of carbon pricing in provinces on cost in the NWT. There is a lot of our material and a lot of our goods come from southern jurisdictions. Once we have all this work done, we will be in a position to make decisions about the approach that the NWT plans on using. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
If one was to take a look at the decision paper, the decision paper honestly guides the reader more towards a carbon tax rather than a cap and trade system. It seems like it would be a little more costly to put in cap and trade. We already have infrastructure in terms of administrative support and what have you on other tax systems. It seems like we might be heading towards a tax rather than a cap and trade system.
The Minister mentioned that we have talked to the federal government and we have asked them to pay attention to our special needs as a highly expensive jurisdiction, but to date, as far as I am aware, there has not been any change in the amounts that are being proposed; $10 per tonne in year one, and up to size 50 in year four. I'm wondering: what can the Minister explain to this House as it relates to this resulting in a major increase to the cost of living? What is the government's intention to reduce those effects?
Mr. Speaker, that was one of the core questions, and we have to determine what any carbon pricing revenue we use in the Northwest Territories, whether we use it in green energy programs, and how much will be used to offset the high cost of living and doing business in the North. We all know how expensive it is in the North, so we have to take all that into some serious consideration as we determine a mechanism going forward.
I appreciate what the Minister has shared with us, but is there any indication at this point as to what the government's position will be to direct the revenues raised by this carbon tax? This government is feeling the effects of it. It is having major effects on our budget. It is arguably one of the biggest impacts that we have as a government going forward in terms of building infrastructure and trying to maintain it. Will we be able to help low income earners, even help middle income earners neutralize their income through a tax adjustment? Can we get some of this out to businesses and homeowners to seek alternative energy sources? Mr. Speaker, is there something the Minister can share with us along those lines?
As I noted before, what we do with any revenues from the carbon pricing will still need to be determined, and this was one of the questions that we consulted with Northerners. We had over, I think over 300 responses to our online survey, and that was one of the questions that we had on there. We had some very good feedback. As I said before, we had just closed the consultation period, so we would like to have a look at a lot of the results because the government's vision for the Northwest Territories is really not a government vision for the Northwest Territories. It is actually a Northwest Territories vision for the Northwest Territories. That is why we want to analyze the results of the survey and see how we can incorporate the thoughts into any plans we have moving forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, we look forward to seeing the results, of course, of the survey and the public consultation that has been going on. That will be important information for this government.
Mr. Speaker, the government's of course next step is going to be that they're going to be bringing forward some proposed legislation to this Assembly sometime in the near future. We expect that the proposal will, of course, include some clear articulation and details on the government's plan, so I'm wondering: can the Minister explain maybe what possible further public engagement opportunities will be provided for Northerners to have their say once they see a little bit more detail? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Once an approach is determined, it will be, of course, very critical that we communicate with the public and Members on the reasons for our approach. We all understand that carbon pricing was a federal initiative, where the federal government has actually developed an approach that will be used if a province or territory doesn't implement. That's why it's very important and very critical that we come up with a mechanism that best suits the Northwest Territories, and I believe we're doing the work right now.
We believe in a Northern approach, along with determining where the revenues will be used and how they will be distributed, and again, that goes back to the public engagement survey we just finished and incorporating some of those thoughts into our approach going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm encouraged by the recent consultation on the new legislation for the first ever Mineral Resources Act. This is valuable information that needs to be shared and is within the strategy, the NWT Geological Survey Strategic Plan, released this past March, Mr. Speaker. My question is: what awareness of this strategy has the department done since? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Geological Survey Strategic Plan, which is a five-year plan that was released this year, is a very important asset to this Government of the Northwest Territories. This information is used primarily by industry, but it's used to help inform this government, particularly around environmental land stewardship and climate change issues across this territory for any future development, and to assess the situations that are ongoing right now, such as the Highway No. 3, these types of things, with permafrost degradation and such.
We've just recently opened up the new storage facility out at the airport. We had a grand opening there and had a number of people out there participate and got to show off some of the stuff that this department does. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Part of the consultation questions I heard on the last go-around here on the new Mineral Resources Act consultation was that not everybody could afford to go to the regional centres to participate into the open houses. I'm wondering if we can take the open house sessions to the communities. Will the Minister commit to an open house session on this strategy and how it is inter-linked with other initiatives to the five Sahtu communities? It will be four, now.
Mr. Speaker, we are on the road with our consultation on this. We went to the regional centres, but this initiative that we put forward, we have an extremely important Web portal with interaction where anyone from within the industry or the Northwest Territories can interact with the department and answer a number of questions and put their thoughts forward. They have the mail-in option. They can email us. They can phone the department and we'll have someone discuss these options with them. That's our commitment, and we will continue to do that, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you for the response. Would the Minister, through the regional office, make trips of campaign informational sessions, open houses, to the four surrounding communities in the Sahtu, particular Fort Good Hope, Deline, Tulita, and Colville?
I'm not sure what the question was, but we've committed. We went out to all the regional centres. We just concluded with Behchoko here the other day. Once we develop a "what we heard" document we will be reaching back out to everybody.
It's a six-step process, and we will be also going out to section 35 consultation on this, as this has the potential of affecting Aboriginal rights and we're going to make sure we're not doing that. We will be reaching out to all of them at the same time.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is: I know the department is working on that mineral conference. Would the Minister look at holding that session, if and when it happens, in the community of Tulita? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'll have to take that under advisement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about airport infrastructure in Nunakput, and my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain how the Department of Infrastructure monitors territorial gravel runways to ensure regular maintenance and safe operations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Infrastructure works closely with all our airport maintainers and airlines to monitor maintenance operations at all our airports across the Northwest Territories. We also conduct detailed airport inspections and assessments twice a year on all airports within the Northwest Territories and every year in the Nunakput region. We just finished a detailed inspection actually at the end of July with a number of personnel who went up there. We had engineers, electricians, surface specialists, and operations managers assessing each airport in the region. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, under the current monitoring and maintenance plan, when will the Nunakput Airport runway surface next be rehabilitated?
At all our runways, we already have a number of stockpiles of gravel specific to airport runways, so this is already in place. With an effective maintenance plan in place and a drainage management plan in place, this helps extend the life of all the runways in the Northwest Territories. We also have an EK35 program which we put on all the runways, the gravel ones, in the Northwest Territories to help tighten up and stabilize and bind the gravel that's on the runway and keep the dust down.
To specifically answer the question of what we're doing in Nunakput, in the 2018-2019 capital plan we have drainage improvements specifically at the Sachs Harbour runway.
I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, has the Department of Infrastructure previously explored paving or chipsealing runways at one or more airports in the Nunakput region?
The department has investigated the advantages and disadvantages of doing this to the runways across the Northwest Territories. One of the cons of this whole thing is, if we were to even do this, say, in the northern region, put chipseal down and the chipseal peels up, it could cause delays on those runways and disrupt service to them; but the other side of it is the cost of the equipment that would be needed to repair these. We're not going to go out and buy paving equipment for each community to be able to address this thing.
Based on performance around that, Transport Canada does not treat runways any different if they are chipseal paved versus gravel, so there's no advantage to doing that. I believe the Province of Saskatchewan has done this and we are working closely with them and seeing what they have done, because they've already returned a number of those runways that they did back to gravel.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the response. Definitely travelling around northern Canada you see the advantages and disadvantages of having gravel runways, and definitely the limitations to the certain types of planes that they're allowed.
Mr. Speaker, my final question is: how is the GNWT's partnership in the Northern Transportation Adaptation Initiative being used to leverage funds and other support for stabilization and enhancement of airport infrastructure in our most northern communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We've worked with Northern Adaptation Initiative administered by Transport Canada and we've done a significant amount of research with their help to understand climate change and the impact on our airports and runway system across the Northwest Territories. We've also invested in drainage improvements, as we expect that this will become increasingly more challenging with permafrost degradation, and we will continue to work with them.
The other thing where we do work within the federal government is the Capital Asset Assistance Program, and we're always in discussions with them on how we can utilize that source of funding to help northern airports. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Will the Minister post the feasibility study of universal affordable daycare in the NWT to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment website, yes or no? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am well aware of the feasibility study that was tabled in the House in the last government. We can put a link to that Tabled Document on our website. Thank you.
I'd like to thank the Minister for his answer and his response. Thank you. Did the Department of Education, Culture and Employment undertake any work to produce the universal childcare implementation plan called for in the 2016-2019 mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories, yes or no?
Yes, we did start doing some work on the action plan. I do want to inform the Member and Members of the House that we're currently in negotiations with the Government of Canada on a bilateral agreement that will include an early learning and childcare action plan that does outline spending over a three-year period that will take us to the end of this government. Mind you, it's not a universal childcare action plan, but it will be an action plan that will help guide us in early childhood programming and services to the end of this government.
Again, I'd like to thank the Minister for his answer. Has the Department of Education, Culture and Employment calculated the value of the reduction in costs for universal childcare given that junior kindergarten has started this year, yes or no?
We're still getting the enrolment rates for junior kindergarten students, so we don't have an exact number. What we did look at, though, was every family was going to be saving anywhere from $8,000 to $12,000 a year, and that's what we've got now, but we don't have the full enrolment rates of junior kindergarten at this time.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I'd like to again thank the Minister for his answer in the House, and I guess once we get those enrolment figures we can look at what rolling out universal childcare would actually cost.
My next question: will the Minister prepare a detailed action plan, including deliverables and completion dates, for the introduction of universal affordable childcare in the Northwest Territories, yes or no? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
On universal childcare, not at this time. I can't commit to that. As I did mention, we are in bilateral negotiations with the Government of Canada to get some funding that will roll out early learning and childcare action plan. As I mentioned, that will take us to the end of this government, and we will be sharing that with committee once that bilateral agreement is signed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
