Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the finance Minister. Well, the biggest thing that I'm a little worried about is austerity, and I brought this up in the last Assembly. And when the Minister of the day had mentioned that this issue would be brought to the next Assembly to look at, so here we are today. So I'm just want to raise this because it's a concern. You know, will
Member from Tu NedheWiilideh, question, please.
Yeah. The question is would these measures to balance the budget be through layoffs or funding cuts? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I'm also the Minister responsible for the public service and the work that we do as a government can't happen without that public service. So that is I hope not a rumor that's out amongst the public service that that's where we're going to be starting to find a way for better and more responsible government. Being a responsible government, having responsible fiscal policies, does not necessarily require us to go out and get rid of those people who deliver our programs and services. It does mean looking at how we do things, looks at the duplication of services, at government renewal, are there areas where we can be more efficient, how can we operate differently and better, and how can we look internally to fund so that we're not continually adding new positions, adding more when we're not already managing the house that we're in. So I appreciate the line of questioning. I don't and I share the concern, but I certainly want to emphasize to the public servants out there that this doesn't need to happen without them at the forefront telling us, in fact, how we can do better. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These questions going to the Minister of housing. In my statement, I referred to the rent and how it's not working for the tenants of the Northwest Territories in the housing association. Will the Minister look at restructuring the current rent scale?
Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Minister for Housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of the question of looking at the rental scale, Housing NWT is currently reviewing the rental scale as an action item for the strategic renewal exercise conducted in the 19th Assembly. So it is an action item.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the select few who have fulltime employment and keep up to date with their rents, will the department look at homeownership options for these tenants? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The department can work with the tenants if they're interested in homeownership options. We can set up meetings with the individual tenants if they do have that interest for that opportunity.
Thank you. Ministers, please direct your comments to me and say start with Mr. Speaker as well. Thank you.
Final question, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. There are two programs available. The homeownership initiative and the home purchase program. Are these programs still in existence? Because I have two constituents who are who have fulltime employment and have been trying to get some answers on these programs but they're not getting any concrete answers. I am just wondering are these programs still in existence? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If they are interested in the homeownership program, they can contact Housing NWT district office. The program is still in existence and operating. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Mackenzie Delta.
Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one day this is going to be all of us in here, okay? So right now the Housing NWT repair programs require seniors to contribute 10 percent of repair costs if they earn $59,000 or more. Would the Minister commit to reviewing the income threshold for the repair program? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of housing NWT.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm afraid I didn't understand the question for Housing NWT, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Member from Monfwi, can you rephrase your question, please.
What I said is right now what the housing is doing is that Housing NWT repairs program requires seniors to contribute 10 percent of repair costs, which is $1,000, if they are making $59,000 or more. So what I'm telling the Minister is that would the Minister commit to reviewing the income threshold for the repair program?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, great news. In 2023, the copayment requirement for up to a thousand dollars was removed in the emergency repair program and the fuel tank replacement program. And the budget for that program was also increased to $15,000. So that's good news. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And well that is good news to hear. That's what the previous Ministers have said. And I still recently, I forward her a letter letters from my constituents, the elders, who are in that situation where they have to pay $1,000, which many of them are saying that they cannot afford, the 10 percent required for repair program, and I just recently send her some. And there are deadline attached to those. So can the Minister allow the 10 percent equity in the seniors repair program to be paid in installment by clients, because it is still in place. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we can do is we can refer this back to Housing NWT and get the information to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. It's good that, you know, for them to review that. Okay, can the Minister commit to transferring North Slave housing office from Yellowknife that specifically deals with Tlicho communities to provide better services to people, especially the elders who are faced with many challenges. And I've said this many times. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd have to get back to the Member about the transfer and look into the information before I can commit to anything. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister for Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
This is in reference to the income threshold. So it's still it's referenced to income threshold. So will the Minister adjust the income threshold for seniors support program based on higher cost of living for elders in small and remote communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the review of the core need income threshold over the next year, this will be all reviewed and that will include seniors and elders living in small remote communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the issues I raised up around foreign investments in our minerals industry, the House of Commons committee on industry and trade is seeking a national security review into Vital Metals' sale shares of Vital Metals sold to a stateowned company under the Investment Canada act. The Minister the federal minister of industry has said he will block the sale of Canadian assets to stateowned enterprises. So my question for our industry Minister, industry, tourism and investment that is, is do we have a similar mechanism to assess security risks that are coming from foreign investment here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you very much. I'll respond to many things; that's okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we don't have a similar mechanism to that. We here in the Northwest Territories, that type of responsibility would fall to the federal government under the Investment Canada Act and if they choose to do a review and they need the support of the GNWT, ITI would certainly participate in any means that they needed us to. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And obviously foreign affairs or global affairs is a federal responsibility, but it seems that given the interest in these minerals, and all critical minerals, that we ought to consider this issue. So is the Minister looking into how we can assess investment and maybe work with Ottawa behind the scenes on these kind of investments and whether or not they are in the best interests of Northerners. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, what I want to start off by saying actually here is that I actually want to thank the Member for giving me the opportunity to speak about this on the floor of the House. I know this is something that has been in I like to talk a lot, Mr. Speaker. Okay. Okay, right to it, then.
Foreign investment is not all bad, Mr. Speaker. Foreign investment is something that Canada relies on, and foreign investment is something that our critical mineral mining absolutely relies on right now. And so what I can say to the Member right now is we are constantly monitoring all of our investments in all of the companies that operate within the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you. And to be clear, no one's antiinvestment here but what we want is the right kind of investment. And when we know we have an adversarial government with a strangle hold on the market, this requires some new policy tools. The Yukon has a security council that's been created. Will the Minister work with the Premier to create a similar council to assess these kind of concerns? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is well aware of the securities council that the government of Yukon has put in place. We were excited to see some of the names on that council because those are people that we have had the opportunity to work with here at the Government of the Northwest Territories in the past and that we look forward very much to seeing the results of that securities council. But as far as what the Premier will choose to do, that question would have to go to the Premier. I can say, though, that we have priority setting next week and this might be a topic of conversation next week for all of caucus. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Final supplementary. Member for Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a helpful thing if we could build that into our priorities. What is the Minister doing to ensure we attract the right kind of investment from friendly sources in the United States and Europe? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we just had the opportunity as Cabinet well, there was four of us, plus we also had another MLA from the other side, the MLA for the Sahtu, that went down to Roundup in the last month. We had the opportunity to speak to many different players, so to speak, in the critical minerals and mineral extraction field and landscape. I also have the opportunity in the next month to travel to Ottawa where I will still be continuing to have conversations with private industry, with Indigenous governments, and also with the federal government. And all of these topics that we discuss here are going to be discussions that continue there.
Mr. Speaker, I think it's also really important in this conversation to reiterate that one of the most important things about this is relationships, and relationships are paramount when it comes to operating in the Northwest Territories. And that was a message that we delivered loud and clear when we were at Roundup and speaking with industry in Vancouver last month. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of ITI. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So my first set of questions are for the Minister of Finance, and if there's time after, I have additional questions for the Minister of Infrastructure.
So currently the net carbon tax revenues after we hand out the offset payments, they go into the GNWT's general revenues, and this could be 14 to $20 million per year but the public cannot see how these revenues are contributing to climate change solutions. So will this government commit to ensure that all net carbon tax revenues go towards climate change mitigation and adaptation programs in the NWT with transparent public reporting on the spending? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly can ensure that all of the net revenue from the carbon tax goes is spent on some sort of measure that will assist us in our climate change adaptation and GHG reduction efforts, and those efforts are reported in the public accounts every year. What I suspect maybe actually the Member's after here is some sort of separated fund. The concern of having a separated fund is you then just earmark a handful of dollars when, in fact, Mr. Speaker, we spend far more than just the at this point projected $11 million or so net revenue. 10 percent of that revenue now is being shared with community governments. And in the last year we had over $16 million in the Department of Infrastructure alone on capital asset retrofits, Arctic Energy Alliance support, and engineering studies and grants being outgoing to monitor things like permafrost and permafrost change for instance. So I am very confident we are spending that net amount. It's how we're reporting it that clearly what we're doing in the public accounts, folks aren't finding it, and I am quite determined that we will find a better way to put that forward for residents. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So just one followup here: So I know that we've consistently heard from the government that it's not a good idea to have a specific revolving fund but I've also we've also heard from the public that there's demand for that kind of transparency.
Can the Minister explain if there are specific technical barriers or legislative barriers to instituting such a revolving fund which would provide greater transparency and understanding for the public as to how we're investing in climate change alternatives?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, having a revolving fund where you take a specific amount of money and put that aside, typically it's used for Crown corporations, for example for the airport where there's money in and going in and going out. It allows an entity to operate and conduct its operations with that revolving fund. Having it where there's a revenue source coming in and we take that percentage out, one of the concerns is that you actually wind up saying, all right, here's the $10 million that we're going to use for this initiative. And I think the Member's statement laid out quite well why carbon tax should really only be part of what we're doing, and we need to be looking at the impacts of climate change in the North, the impacts of GHG emissions. The fact that we're on the front lines of climate change, we need to be spending probably a lot more than just the amount that we're getting on the carbon tax to actually advance this. So that is one part of the hesitancy around a revolving fund. But, again, as I said, I do understand that we need to find a better way to explain to the public what we're doing with not only this fund but with a lot of the funds spread across multiple departments. And I am committed to finding a better way to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
