Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly I appreciate the concerns raised by the Member for Yellowknife North. She spoke well to them and I think summarized well the concerns associated with moving forward with the bill as it is. Certainly the biggest one that I have is the uncertainty it could create. We certainly don't have certainty as to what would happen after the bill moves forward, and that is a concern that I share.

I also think the Member for Yellowknife North made it clear that we are not in a position to be repealing the carbon tax in the sense that citizens will not be paying...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table a letter from the Tlicho government to Land and Water Boards of the Mackenzie Valley on Waters Regulations Interpretation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for the answer. Respectfully, Mr. Speaker, what I was asking is whether we can initiate discussions and initiate movement on amendments to the waters regulations while waiting for the board's decision. Is there any reason why waiting for the board's decision precludes the GNWT from moving on this issue? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke to a suggestion by the Tlicho government that we engage in discussions on amendments to the water regulations. I'd just like to know from the Minister of ECC has the department initiated those discussions as suggested? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll be brief on this one. I just wanted to thank the Member for Deh Cho for bringing this forward. I really appreciate her work, and the Member for Range Lake for seconding the motion.

Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy to support this. This is absolutely an important issue to me, and I definitely know it's an important issue to the people of Frame Lake.

I made a statement about this earlier in session about the need for a prioritization or sorry, our need to prioritize this, our need to put money behind it to ensure that the priority is reflected in our actions, and so the...

Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, I just want to get clear is the Minister open to initiating changes to the regs. I know that there's talk about changing the Waters Act, but I would suggest that's going to be a process that will take some time. Is the Minister open to initiating changes to the regs ahead of or alongside development of a new Waters Act? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister explain to us why the department making a ruling is precluding the department from initiating discussions and moving forward knowing that changes to the regulations could take some time. I don't personally see why the work can't occur alongside. Can the Minister provide some more clarity? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I know there's lots of people in our community who access the programs that Arctic Energy Alliance has put in place under this funding and would be concerned to hear that it might be that there's difficulties obtaining funding to keep it going. So I would appreciate if the Minister would keep us in the loop about that.

Just back to the funding itself, the total was I believe the Minister said $31.2 million. So have we managed to spend the entirety of that amount within the required time under the funding agreement?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the fund have time constraints on it? Is it something that we receive money for every year, or is it coming to an end at some point? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'd like to ask for a little bit more detail about the funds which are being reallocated under a low carbon economy leadership fund. Can the Minister describe the programs that fall under that, that $8 million funding.