Thank you, Madam Speaker. My Member's statement was the GNWT presented legislation to increase carbon tax last week. Legislation will remove carbon tax rebate for home heating fuel, change increase of home heating bills by hundreds of dollars in my riding. In the press release yesterday, Madam Speaker, there was nothing said about the impact of heating bills. Can the Minister tell me how much heating bills will go up for the average household in the communities of Sachs Harbour, Paulatuk, Ulukhaktok, and Tuktoyaktuk? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I do have that information. I was just trying to see if I could pull it up quickly to provide that sense. I certainly can say, Madam Speaker, that quite unfortunately the communities in the riding of Nunakput are likely to be facing some of the highest impacts from the change to the federal carbon tax rate. And Madam Speaker, I'm not sure it does much good at this point to try to guess at those numbers. But they certainly are facing some of the highest increases certainly in the Northwest Territories as a result of the change to that carbon tax rate. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Could we have that information that she just said before the end of the sitting.
Madam Speaker, our government's press release said nothing about the impact of higher carbon taxes in heating bills. It didn't say anything about the impact of cost of living average in a household or a business. When the government raises its taxes to explain the impact of people from $50 a ton to $65 a ton, it's not meaningful information for the people. Government should provide more transparent accessible information on its proposal, Madam Speaker.
Can the Minister commit to release information on how the carbon tax will affect households in each community now through to 2030? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I certainly will be able to release that and make sure that we get it to the Members, make sure we get that out to the public. And Madam Speaker, you know, to be very clear also there's a difference in terms of who's being impacted. Folks that own their home are likely to pay more because they pay their heating fuel. Folks that are in market rentals that are paying for their heating fuel are likely to pay more. Folks who are in social housing or affordable housing will not be paying simply because that's part of the costs that get paid for them. Or if someone lives in a rental situation where the landlord won't be passing that on, they wouldn't, although given the increases, that is certainly not something one wouldn't want to plan on. But there are a number of households who are in other circumstances, they will be facing increases and we'll make sure to get that information out what the anticipated average rate increases will be by community. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the press release said, again, that GNWT offset its heating costs using a cost of living offset will the equal average out household heating cost increase and the people will still get impacted through the social housing due to the local LHOs going to still have to pay for that fuel which comes out of their budget which is so limited.
Madam Speaker, will the Minister consider a fairer approach to the carbon tax to offset such as a tiered cost of living offset payments to give more support to the people of the Beaufort Delta in a tiered system? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I certainly would consider that. And Madam Speaker, I just wanted to acknowledge that, you know, it's thanks very much to the ideas presented by committee that the department can go back and take some time and see if there are other ways to try to mitigate the increases to the federal carbon tax. One being a tiered system by region but at the same time looking at, you know, that as I said earlier, home someone who owns their home, someone who doesn't own their home, even within a region, there's going to be differences in what someone pays. So we do want to do some work to try to be as equitable as possible but acknowledging that because there certainly are those ridings who are facing those higher costs, Madam Speaker, we are going to go back and see if there is a way to adjust to account for that. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Nunakput. Final supplementary.
Thank you. I thank the Minister for that, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, some provinces rebate provincial sales tax and heating bills. We don't pay provincial sales tax but we do pay GST in our heating bills, and that adds 5 percent on our tax on every bill. What measures has the Minister considered to support heating costs in the Beaufort Delta? Has the Minister considered asking the federal government for a rebate GST on heating bills in the territories when heating costs is most expensive? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I can say that I have not heard it raised, the idea of requesting specifically a GST rebate on heating fuel. So as I said earlier, I'm happy to take that forward. And more generally, I will acknowledge I've certainly been tasked by my colleagues to take the message to Ottawa given the impacts of climate change in the Northwest Territories that the increased costs and what that's going to do to individual residents and businesses is, as I say, a message that I've been tasked to carry forward and I certainly will do so. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
