Mr. Speaker, I'm going to quote Premier Simpson: It does take time to work together, but that is important. Mr. Speaker, that was said on November 27th by Premier Simpson.
Mr. Speaker, my questions for Premier Simpson is how is he meeting those objectives, the hallmarks of consensus government, by publicly by allowing publicly the release of carbon tax policy and the restoring fiscal balance plan to the public in advance of working with Members? Thank you.
Thank you Member from Yellowknife Centre. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So those documents, those are under the Department of Finance, so I'd like to redirect that to the Minister of Finance. Thank you.
Thank you, Premier. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're all happy to share on this side of the House. Mr. Speaker, the carbon tax regulations that were changed came about as a result, quite frankly, of a significant amount of outcry by the public. So it was very apparent that members of the public were wondering when they would see an equivalent amount of relief to what was being promised by other jurisdictions across Canada, the regulations lie within the Department of Finance to make those changes, and in response to what was really a very strong, very clear request from the public those changes were made to, again, to a regulation, not a policy matter but to a regulation.
With respect to the second question, Mr. Speaker, that of the fiscal strategy, Mr. Speaker, just a little over a year ago there was a review of the Fiscal Responsibility Policy, and the response from committee, which is available publicly, was very clear that a fiscal strategy should be done by the government to help manage the finances of the government in order to achieve priorities and mandate. But committee at that point was very clear in saying that that is not a document that they wanted to be responsible for but committee at the time in fact said you go make sure you do it, and we're going to hold you to account for it.
So it was shared with Members, Mr. Speaker, but and it was thought, quite frankly, that by sharing it and getting it out, we'd be in a position to set our priorities knowing what would be going on rather than turning around and then having Cabinet go off and come up with a Fiscal Responsibility Policy. This way it was all out in the open and was available to Members and to the members of the public in advance. It's a guiding document for policy or for the government, Mr. Speaker. It's not a policy, and it's not a law. It is something that holds us to account for how we're spending the public dollars. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Minister, not the Premier in this case obviously, has just said public their public position is they're responding to the cries of the public, not to Members. That's what I just heard. And she said it was shared to get it out there but my letter to my office says confidential. So how am I supposed to share it? So, Mr. Speaker, my question, I guess for the Finance Minister, who is a recycled Minister from the last government, is how are Members supposed to share confidential documents when you stamp them confidential and you get to publicly release them without discussing them with committee members first?
Cabin Radio.
Members, please direct your questions to this Chair, not to the Member or the Minister. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the carbon tax changes and the removal of the home heating fuel element, that was certainly, at least from all of the media that I was hearing, was a fairly clear and strong public outcry.
With respect to the fiscal strategy, Mr. Speaker, and its being shared, it is being shared confidentially. There's a lot of documents that get shared confidentially between Members and Cabinet, and then after that period of time it does get shared out publicly depending and Members can or cannot respond or can or cannot provide their comments on these documents that get shared. But that there's two different things that are being talked about in this question, two very different things that are being talked about in this series of questions. Carbon tax policy, carbon tax regulations, and then a fiscal strategy to guide the government finances. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my next question is for the Finance Minister is when is committee going to matter? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to speak to that. Mr. Speaker, I spent a fair bit of time in front of committee last Assembly. I expect I'll spend a lot of time in front of committee again. I've also already made efforts to share information with committee, both in terms of sharing the fiscal strategy, which I'll note, Mr. Speaker, in the past, certainly in the four years ago and my knowledge of past Assemblies, a fiscal strategy was not shared in advance, was not shared with committee, was not made public. We've already made better than that. We shared with committee. We then took it out to the public. We're making it open. We're being transparent about it. So I'm not sure exactly what it is that the Member takes issue with me in the course of a few days. I've certainly made every effort to reach out as I've said, make myself available, make myself available to committee Members, have meetings with stakeholders, meetings with members of the public, whoever wants to talk about these things with me. And I'm happy to do the same with this committee and with this Member. Thank you.
Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister talks as if she's still in the 19th Assembly. Mr. Speaker, this is about the 20th Assembly making these decisions, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the Minister clearly and simply will she work with committee in advance of releasing this information? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, if he would like longer periods of notice in advance of documents, I guess we'll have to find a longer period of time as much as is available. It wasn't much time that we had to turn around coming up with a fiscal strategy in order to have it to Members and then to the public in advance of the priority setting, which seemed like a responsible way of going about things. But I will certainly endeavour to make sure that there's a longer period of time that the Member has these documents before they're made public. Thank you.
Minister. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.
