Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker,
WHEREAS the federal government implemented a tax on vaping products effective October 1st, 2022, under the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act and has extended an offer to enact an additional duty on vaping products with the revenues to be received by the Government of the Northwest Territories;
AND WHEREAS the federal government has presented the Coordinated Vaping Products Taxation Agreement with Canada, which the Government of the Northwest Territories desires to sign;
AND WHEREAS as a condition of a coordinated vaping products taxation agreement, the Government of the Northwest Territories must confirm its support for the Government of Canada to levy an excised tax on vaping products on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories to receive 50 percent of the federal Vaping Products Excise Tax duties levied on vaping product sales in the Northwest Territories;
AND WHEREAS the authority to tax residents of the Northwest Territories resides with the Legislative Assembly.
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that the Government of the Northwest Territories should agree to receive revenues from an excise duty in respect of the Northwest Territories as imposed as part of the federallylegislated vaping products excise tax.
Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions about this, if I could. I think we I'm trying to remember if I actually saw this motion before. But can the Minister tell us a little bit more about what this is actually about, what kind of revenues we expect?
Sorry to cut you off, Member for Frame Lake; there is no questions, but you could have debate on your concerns and anything you have. Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do have a few things I'd like to know a little bit more about, and perhaps the Minister may get up and actually provide some more information about this. But I'd like to know a little bit more about what this agreement is all about, what level of revenues our government expects to receive, and where those revenues would end up. I suspect they'll probably just go into the consolidated revenue fund which, quite frankly, I always have a little bit of trouble with and, of course, people at finance really hate targeted revenues. But I do think that we owe it to the public to give a little bit better explanation about what this is all about. And I look forward to some further information, and I hope that the Minister would provide some explanation here.
But I do support this. We dealt with vaping in the last Assembly, and I think it might have even flowed over into this Assembly if I remember correctly. This is a real problem for our youth. It's causing severe health problems with our youth. It's very addictive stuff, and we need to deal with this more seriously. I know that there's people in the Department of Health and Social Services that are working on this. But this is really bad stuff, and we got to help our youth understand that and get off this kind of stuff. And if this money can help do that, I'm all for it. But we need to do more and better. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. I'll allow the Minister to close debate.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This motion is of importance to the people of the Northwest Territories. I did intend to make some brief remarks this morning. I'm not entering, obviously, into any sort of a question period. But there has been a process by which the House would follow to keep committees apprised of their work and respond to correspondence from committee relating to any uncertainties about what was proposed.
But for the sake of the public, Mr. Speaker, on April 7th of 2022, Canada announced the implementation of a federal vaping products excised tax that would be effective in October of that year, of last year. And provincial and territorial governments were invited to join a coordinating vaping products tax regime. That would then apply an additional duty on vaping products for those participating jurisdictions. It's that which we are now looking to participate in. And under this approach, Canada is responsible for administering the collection of the tax, which comes at no additional cost to the Northwest Territories. But it does also then share some of those revenues with the Government of the Northwest Territories. More specifically, we're expecting right now based on a current projections and current sales that it's somewhere in and around $500,000, but obviously ideally, Mr. Speaker, it would be less because ideally there's less products being sold.
And on that, just a couple final notes, Mr. Speaker. We are hopeful that the additional tax and the fact that it's it's enhanced by participating in this regime will, in fact, discourage the use of vaping products and, particularly for youth, they would hopefully be even more sensitive to an increase in the prices of these products. It's certainly is something that is of concern. It's concerning to the Government of the Northwest Territories, and that is one particular reason we would want to participate in Canada's regime. Again, I would note this was supported by Canadian Cancer Society and certainly we do look forward to ongoing efforts by the federal government, by our own department of health, and by nonprofit organizations to discourage the use of vaping. And hopefully this is one more tool in that toolbox. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Motions. Member for Thebacha.
