Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I can certainly commit that the Department of Finance, which is where any loans or other matters that are forgiven, for example, student financial assistance, anything of that nature that is going to be forgiven as an obligation or debt owed to the government, does come through the comptroller general's office, and I will see that that office does connect in with Housing NWT to ensure that if there are programs underutilized or ways that we can support that department, that office, that we will do so. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 69, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023, be read for a third time. And Madam Speaker, I would request a recorded vote.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the property tax arrears is for homeowners who are paying property taxes. So in that respect, someone who is living in public housing would not have access to that program. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Bill 70, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operation Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023 be read for the second time. This bill makes supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures of the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 20222023 fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to have two of my younger constituents in the building acting as pages today Scarlett Anderson and Sylvia Isenor. It is wonderful to have them. I hope they find this an inspirational experience. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, I move seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 62, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, No. 2, be read for the second time.

This bill makes a number of amendments to the Act to update the Act, in light of recent Income Tax Act of Canada amendments, by the following:

Allowing the communication of information between governments of the Northwest Territories and Canada;

Removing federally repealed provisions;

Making changes respecting various COVID19 relief measures;

Making the act conform with the CanadaNorthwest Territories tax collection agreement;

Including a...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I'm not good to providing a prediction here today. I certainly can say the Department of Finance is monitoring this. I know the Bank of Canada just put out their most recent monetary policy. And certainly I know I'm reading those documents, and our department's staff and fiscal policy are also reading those materials and keeping an eye on what is happening. But I think really where I want to go, Madam Speaker, in responding is to reassure that in that monitoring that we are doing so not just as an academic exercise. We're doing that so that we would be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there is within the fiscal responsibility policy, a two year period so it's not necessary it doesn't line up there is kind of a grace period where if there is an event such as, you know, what we all hope to be a once in a lifetime flood that in those circumstances, we would see that you do get a bit of room. We get these two years where the deficit that we're running now we can catch up on. And so with that also said, the operating deficits, the surpluses aren't necessarily we need to actually see where the actuals land to see just what level of compliance we have...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I'm going to start I want to say I'll start at the back end of the questions first. With respect to any greenhouse gas reductions that are perhaps, you know, our hope to flow from projects, obviously it is, you know, an unknown at this point what would necessarily be the actual final changes to greenhouse gas emissions and there could be other factors at play in that regard such as, you know, weather or other reductions that might be taking place for other reasons associated. Now that said, as to the timing, it's just to be to be certain, these projects where...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, there's not a formal plan or policy or strategy around responding to insurance costs. Insurance costs are something that arises as a result of private market factors. And unfortunately, the Northwest Territories does face higher premiums generally. We have a smaller population over which the industry can spread its risk out. There's, you know, obviously remote location. There is the factor of the types of building materials that are used when we're dealing with capital insurance or capital products and assets, houses. And the fact is there's often...