Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as other Members of the House have mentioned, many of my constituents have concerns with the government's carbon pricing plan. I've taken a look at some of the statistics on emissions. If you look at the overall emissions for commercial and residential combined, it only makes up 10 per cent of total carbon emissions, so it doesn't seem like everyday Northern families are really the ones who are creating the highest level of emissions. I'm wondering if there's a way we can better craft a system to shield them from potential economic hardship that comes along with new pricing systems.
When you look at industry, mining, upstream oil and gas production accounts for 25 per cent of emissions, whereas transportation accounts for 49 per cent. This seems like industry is really where we need to target. So has the Minister explored a cap-and-trade system or the potential inclusion of the NWT into a carbon market where we could put the onus squarely on industry who are causing most of the emissions? Thank you. Sorry, Mr. Speaker. Minister of Finance.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during our review of carbon pricing, we did look at whether cap-and-trade was feasible. The analysis at the time was the NWT economy was too small to participate in any cap-and-trade program in any meaningful manner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Did the Minister look into partnering with larger jurisdictions to be part of a carbon market? The province of Ontario was a part of California's carbon market. They joined with Quebec. So was that proposed, or was it just looking at the NWT as a carbon market?
As the Government of the Northwest Territories, our priority is looking after the people of the Northwest Territories. That's why we informed Ottawa that we're going to come up with a made-in-the-NWT approach that would help minimize the impact that carbon pricing was going to have on residents of the Northwest Territories.
I agree with the Minister. We need a made-in-the-North system, so I'm trying to explore other options that may have not been considered. I commend the government for actually bringing forward a plan. It's just late in the game, and people are concerned about how it's going to affect families, so can the Minister share the cap-and-trade analysis they've done with this House or release it publicly so we can see the analysis and see exactly what was considered?
The federal government came up with carbon pricing. Our job was to adjust. I think the Government of the Northwest Territories and the folks have done a great job at mitigating some of the impact it's going to have on residents of the Northwest Territories. As far as the cap-and-trade analysis, I'll have a look and see if that document exists. If it does, I'd be more than happy to share it with Members. Again, I go back to the fact that we are finding a made-in-the-NWT approach.
We recognize there was going to be hardship in families. We had a "what we heard" document. We had a number of comments from across the Northwest Territories. A lot of folks across the Northwest Territories are wondering what's going to be on their table tomorrow morning for breakfast. I think we've taken steps to help address the impact that it's going to have on families in the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that there are offsets and rebates in the carbon pricing proposal. However, industry, who are our largest emitters, seems to have many very high rebates built into it. So I'd like to ask the Minister what the priority was in the carbon pricing plan. Was it on the everyday family, the people who are producing only 10 per cent of emissions, or was the focus really to work with industry to lower those emissions and to bring us to the standard that we need to be at to reduce temperatures moving into the future? Thank you.
We are trying to find a balanced approach. Of course, industry in the Northwest Territories, which is very important to the Northwest Territories and our economy, are some of the biggest emitters in the Northwest Territories, so we wanted to work out a program that would benefit them. It goes without saying in this Chamber that people in the Northwest Territories are our priority.
Mitigating the impact on the people in the Northwest Territories, I think, is something that the government has done a fairly good job at. We rolled out our approach to carbon pricing. So there's a lot of information out there for those that are curious as to what the impact might be on them. Again, we need to find a balanced approach that works for industry and, more importantly, works for people in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
