Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we've been talking about is carbon tax this week and so my questions are for the Minister of Finance.
You know, I also want to know, like, how we're ever going to grow the Northwest Territories' population when the federal government is forcing the NWT to create a new logo I guess, is what I'm thinking, is move to the Northwest Territories where you can wear a parka eight months of the year in your house just so you could feed your family. You know, that's what carbon tax is going to make people do, is choose.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Finance explain why $15 million, or the 25 percent of the carbon tax revenues, will not be rebated to households, businesses, local and Indigenous governments, or NGOs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, even if we don't accept the proposal that we're putting forward, the tax rates will not change. The tax rates that are being put in place on April 1st from the federal government for carbon tax are coming. What we're trying to do, and what we've done is, particularly after discussions with Members, we're proposing to have a heating fuel offset that will be based on the average household heating usage in the high use zones, middle use zone, and the smaller use zone, which from our calculations, will cover the costs for residents of the increases to the carbon as a result of the carbon tax. We are doing that in a way that, of course that's the madeintheNorth approach. It allows us to have the flexibility of what to do with the increases in revenues.
We're also, in answering the first half of the Member's question, Mr. Speaker, with respect to what we're going to do to keep people coming up here is to actually have some viable industry. Our approach to the large emitters as opposed to the outputbased system of the federal government, Mr. Speaker, is going to allow us that when as diamond mines or other mines or other large emitters may see their production falling, may see the closure plans, that they're not tied to a certain amount that once they're in, they're in. It allows them to plan for closure. It also allows smaller projects, we hope to be seeing, getting off the ground here to be also not subject to the large version of the carbon tax from the federal government.
So we are, again, looking to fully fund as much as can be done for the average resident, their impact, direct and indirect, by carbon tax, and keep industry functioning in a way that is actually adaptive to the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the question I asked is why is this $15 million, or 25 percent, being held by the GNWT to go into general revenues? Where is it going; why is it not going back so we're carbon neutral for some of our businesses? I know I had this discussion on Yukon, the way that they're rebating with the Minister. You know, they have got small businesses, medium businesses that are being rebated, but I guess it's a little bit more complicated than just being rebated.
So will the Minister look at our plan, a madeintheNWT plan, that will include businesses, and if it's not so complicated as Yukon, that they can get a rebate out of this 25 percent that we're keeping back, because obviously the last five years we didn't do anything, or four years that we had the carbon tax and we held this money back. Nobody applied on it or whatever. Nobody knew what to do with it. So let's give it back to our small business, our medium business. I don't have a restaurant. I don't have anything in my community because it's too expensive for any overhead costs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, keeping control of the revenues in the Northwest Territories allows us to do exactly what the Member is saying and to look at where once the carbon tax come in, are there costs that we have not accounted for? The Yukon system, I don't want to speak to another government's system, but very briefly, it is based on assets. It is not based on fuel usage. It is not a direct offset. It is not an uncomplicated system, Mr. Speaker. What we are anticipating, and having done calculations of fuel usage over the last few years, we can anticipate what the added costs to business are that will be passed down to the consumers and residents and add that in to the cost of living offset so that businesses can raise their costs and pass that down. But, on the other end, we were able to include that with the cost of living offset so that the market can adjust for the private sector, but that's so residents don't see themselves penalized as a result of that. And again, as we move forward, if we are maintaining control over the revenues, we're able to continue to adapt that system as we go forward.
Mr. Speaker, this is not a wash for us. There's quite a number in addition to the cost of living offset. Mr. Speaker, we're paying income assistance for folks that are on income assistance living in public housing, the GNWT's covering all those increased costs. So this is not some great, great revenue source in general. There's, you know, tens of millions of dollars being spent on strategic energy initiatives. Money that's being spent over on climate change initiatives with the department of ENR. Far in excess of any extra amount that we are getting in the revenue in the carbon tax. So, again, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll leave it at that and see where the next question takes me.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, please keep your sidebar to a minimum. Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I'm going to go back to that 25 percent. Mr. Speaker, our municipalities are not even included. We already know our municipal governments are underfunded. You know, they need to keep the lights on. Every one of us have either had family, friends, or anybody, or we take part in any kind garbage, you know, snow removal, all these things are going to cost more for the municipal governments. So why are we not giving any of this money back to our municipal governments out of this 25 percent that we're holding back for our government slush fund? I don't know, because I don't know what it is. If this government wants us to vote in favour of a madeintheNWT, it needs to fit the NWT and it needs to fit our municipal governments, our residents, and not just the mines, all our businesses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, carbon tax is coming. Mr. Speaker, the large emitters right now businesses don't have a special program under the federal system either. The federal government will decide where they want to put the money, how they want to put the money. Right now where we've seen them put their money is in electric vehicles, in heat pumps, which don't work in the Northwest Territories. So, Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure that that's necessarily the direction that we all want to go with. As I've said before, we have figured out what the fuel usages have been in the business sector and the private sector, added that into the cost of living offset for residents, so that businesses should realize that they can raise those costs and that they will be offset. We can't take away the signal on carbon tax. That's exactly what the federal government said we can't do. So what else can we do? Again, we're trying to target residents so that they have the spending power to go out and keep the economy churning, trying to ensure that the large emitters, who would be otherwise under the federal system, are able to adapt so that they can come. They can continue to operate here, provide to the Northwest Territories economy. But also, Mr. Speaker, in the last round of conversation, I believe, at the last public briefing, we said we would work with the communities if they want to share with us what they anticipate their actual costs to be. We've already gone to $55 million in contributions to communities with this current budget proposal. That's bringing us up to the $5 million gap that was in the mandate, and we will continue to work with them. So if we know what exactly it is that the communities say they are needing and spending, again, if we have that there's no slush fund. It's called the consolidated revenue fund. It is literally the dollars that pays everyone and everything in this building and everywhere else; it's not a slush fund. So bring us the actuals and we're happy to have that conversation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, the federal government, like I said in my Member's statement, is forcing the hand of all of us to do their to do this work. They want us off oil. Our MP has said we need to move from oil. Okay, so what are we going to use? We've heard from other people, like pellets. We're sending our pellets in Canada to the UK. So oil and gas, we can't even use our oil and gas. Inuvik, we've had we had natural gas but now we're on truckedin propane. We're trucking it up on diesel fuel trucks. Like, this is not an NWT madeintheNWT. I mean, if Justin Trudeau wants to hear me, this is not working for us in the Northwest Territories. We probably have about 10,000 people that pay taxes and the rest are, you know, like underage or, you know, seniors. So how is this government, Minister Wawzonek, Minister of Finance, how are you going to go back and fix it? Like, we need businesses included in this, not just you know, and we need municipalities before it's been brought back to this House, before we vote on it, because I don't think this side of the House is going to support it, and then we're going to be forced at the hand to have a federal backstop.
So will this Minister, please, try and work with us to try and make sure all of the areas get covered so that we're not hurting anymore? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that because of our consensus government, I'm in a position to be able to share with the MLAs the correspondence we've written. They know I share their frustration. I can't necessarily publish those letters publicly, but they know I share their frustration. I was at a finance ministers meeting just last week. It is an opportunity not necessarily to say a lot, but I spoke about the carbon tax at my finance ministers meeting, Mr. Speaker. I share their frustration. It is unfortunate that when we went through the public process of engagement back last fall that we didn't have this level of discussion then. I did take the Members' recommended requests at that time to create the threetiered system. We did exactly as we were requested in that respect. Unfortunately, now we are at a position we're being asked to do more. I have, again I haven't received from the committee what happened at the public briefing that we had when it was the clause by clause, it became a public briefing. I know there was submissions made. I haven't received them. I've made it clear that if there is something that we can do for municipalities in terms of understanding their actuals that we can look at what we can do to try to support them. I haven't received that. We are down to the wire a little bit, Mr. Speaker, but we can pivot; we can react quickly. I am certain that we can find a path forward other than relying on the federal approach that seems to look at EVs and heat pumps and wood pellets. So, Mr. Speaker, we will keep working together and we'll see our path forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
