Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I talked about the effects of climate change and the importance of taking action now. The federal government has indicated that the way in which we are going to do that is by changing folks' behaviour and that was going to be through an applied carbon tax. The NWT signed on to the federal plan for a carbon tax and even though we had previously argued against it, saying such a tax wasn't appropriate for the North.
Can the Minister describe what the tax was in fact intended to accomplish? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sorry, my questions are for the Minister of Finance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Mr. Speaker, the NWT signed on to the Clean Growth and Climate Change Framework. Carbon pricing is actually an element of that. We didn't sign on to carbon pricing just yet. We have an MOU that we are in the final stages of drafting, or it is in its final stages right now. We have not signed that yet.
The Member is correct. We were against carbon pricing when it first came out because we knew that it was going to have a detrimental effect on people in the Northwest Territories. Once we realized that the federal government was going to implement this regardless of whether we were in or not, then we took steps and showed some leadership in coming up with and made an NWT approach that we thought would benefit or minimize the impact of the federal backstop. Had we gone with the federal backstop, it would have been quite costly to people in the Northwest Territories. I would encourage the people not to stand by the border because people would have been leaving so fast, you would have gotten run over. So we have come up with a plan that, although not perfect, addresses a lot of the concerns that we heard from the public across the Northwest Territories.
I appreciate the Minister's reply, and I certainly do appreciate the effort that they have put in with regarding to protecting Northerner's interests, especially around the cost of living.
As maybe a supplement to that question, then, I just want to ask the Minister, then: are there or have there ever been discussions to use carbon tax to mitigate the climate change impacts by changing people's behaviour? I mean if that's what the federal government said it was intended to do, were there ever discussions between ourselves and federal governments to apply it in that manner, that it would be used to change people's behaviour so that we could protect the impact of climate change?
Mr. Speaker, the federal government, that was their original intent, was to try to curb people's behaviour so not to contribute to climate change. They came up with the carbon price tax.
We, in turn, had to make some adjustments to try and minimize the impact that it was going to have on the people of Northwest Territories. The intent was to curb people's behaviours so that there's less greenhouse gas emission, but I think even the federal government realizes that, in the Northwest Territories, and we used the word 'uniqueness' a number of times, our situation is a little different. We have had an opportunity to use their idea to leverage some funding to try and help with some transitional projects in the Northwest Territories to actually contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Thank you to the Minister for the reply. You know, northern communities, industry, and residents are already taking significant steps on their own initiative to invest in renewable energy. We have seen numerous examples of that throughout the territory, whether it's the windmills at Diavik, the solar panels in Colville Lake, or just folks doing improvements on their homes.
Because we are doing it on our own, does it make sense to even burden residents with the new tax, especially if it's not going to do what the federal government intended it to do, and that was to change people's behaviour?
I mean, first of all, this government did not want to burden people with a new tax. Had we used the federal backstop, which they were going to use regardless, it would have cost people in the Northwest Territories a lot more. I want to make that quite clear.
Through a number of our approaches to carbon pricing - and I do believe that our document is public. I know I have briefed committee on it. I have some feedback from committee on it, so I do know that we have a backstop that we are using. One of the things is the cost of living offset that we proposed to help offset some of that high cost of implementing this. The NWT Child Benefit is another one that we are using.
We have taken some steps to try to mitigate the impact on people in the Northwest Territories. Again, I have to reiterate that the federal government was going to impose this no matter what. I think we have met the challenge of trying to minimize the impact on people in the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for the reply. Yes, the federal government was going to impose it on us no matter what, but, as we have seen around the country, there are a number of different jurisdictions that are mounting arguments against Ottawa's carbon plan. You know, if we were joining the new carbon regime, that very future seems to be in doubt. Does the Minister still think that this is the way to go, or are we still going to go through this carbon tax, made-in-the-North carbon tax, come January?
Mr. Speaker, we are monitoring what the other jurisdictions across the country are doing. We will continue to do that. As I said before, we haven't signed the MOU yet. We are still working with Ottawa, but again, I go back to the point that Ottawa is going to implement this regardless what the other jurisdictions are doing. They will implement. They will have their fight with the other jurisdictions. I just want to be sure that our territory is ready, that when the date comes to implement carbon pricing, we are ready for it, and if there are any benefits to be gained from it while mitigating the impact on people in the Northwest Territories, we will take full advantage of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
