Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the Members of the youth -- NWT youth climate change council inquired about the carbon tax annual report and I -- or brought this to my attention. I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance, in the carbon tax annual report there is a $14 million surplus for 2023-2024. In the past previous years, the surplus has been -- surplus or deficits have been within $1.6 million. Can the Minister explain the discrepancy in this year's report? Thank you.
From Range Lake. Minister of Finance.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, although I've reviewed the report, I'm not in the immediate position here today to get into details. There could be a number of different things that could occur in the course of a year. I mean, anything from low water, changes in fuel usage, the wildfires, these can all impact and influence in terms of where fuel usage is coming in, the types of fuel usage that's being -- that's coming in and being charged. High years of fuel usage, such as in a low water year, could well have resulted in that amount. I'd like to -- I'd prefer to be able to break down individually what the different reasons for that could be, and so I would certainly commit to doing so and sharing that also publicly because that certainly is a question that we'd want to have answered clearly. Thank you.
Thank you. Can the Minister explain why the program is designed to run with surpluses like this? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's not necessarily designed or intended to run with surpluses. It is intended -- our program is intended to align with the parameters that the federal government has imposed on provinces and territories around the carbon taxation and while doing so, doing so in a manner that we can continue to see some benefits here in the territory by not misaligning with the kind of large emitters that we have. So, again, not designed for surpluses but, again, really designed for that kind of compliance mechanism. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we -- when the Standing Committee of Economic Development and Environment met with the youth council, one of the comments that was raised was that young people feel like the implementation of the carbon -- of carbon pricing in the Northwest Territories has left some people behind and that there needs to be more done to transition them into a clean energy future with these additional costs, especially in small communities. How does the Minister plan to respond to those concerns that the tax is creating an undue burden in small communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad there's no time on the clock because I can just keep going as long as I'd like, I guess. Mr. Speaker, I have long said that there's a large challenge in the North with respect to the way that the carbon tax parameters are placed upon us by the federal government. The majority of the actual tax revenue does still continue to go back to residents, firstly in the forms of COLO payment, but then secondly in the forms of a number of other subsidies. I spoke to some of them yesterday. There's a territorial power support program. There are direct contributions that we make to the Northwest Territories Power Corporation and investments that we make to support our power systems. Mr. Speaker, there's also the Arctic Energy Alliance which, of course, supports opportunities for residents and businesses to have greener access to energy efficiency in terms of how they're heating their homes and the kind of different types of appliances they're using. I would note that we have lost significant funding from the federal government for that exact initiative. I have gone to my colleagues and my counterpart in the federal government to seek a reinstatement of that, and I am hoping to get some good news. But we can't bring our power bills down if we're not able to invest in that, Mr. Speaker. So, again, there's -- I'll perhaps stop there. I don't know where the next question might go.
I know that my colleague at ECC also has a climate change youth council, certainly would look forward to hearing directly the kinds of solutions that are coming through there and perhaps bringing our two departments together the next time he has an opportunity to meet with them so that we're all hearing the same message collectively. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister for Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. And I think the youth council's proving how effective it could be at raising these issues, and I just want to acknowledge the Minister's response to my first question where she committed to provide that information, and I thank for her that, so do the youth council I'm sure.
I think some of these problems, Mr. Speaker, could be solved if this was a revenue neutral tax where there was a clear indication of where all the revenues went instead of just general revenue, which is how it appears in the report. Will the Minister commit to a revenue neutral tax breaking out how the money is spent clearly so there's no questions about surpluses in the future? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was just trying to pull the report out fast enough. I have it in front of me, Mr. Speaker. But, really, at this point, we -- and I've gone through this many a time. We spend far more as a government on -- in terms of our energy, energy supply, energy policy, climate change initiatives, energy efficiency programs, energy and electricity programs, significantly more there than what we take in on this tax. What we don't do in general, not just with this tax but any other form of tax, any other form of revenue, is pick out a certain type of revenue and sort of earmark it for one thing and one thing only. The reality is if we were to do that with a surplus that does vary year to year, we would not have enough money to do the things that we're doing in all these other spaces. If we said we are only going to -- we're going to use this amount, this is going to be our money for climate change initiatives, it would not meet the needs of what we are finding for climate change initiatives. If we said this is what we're going to use for climate change emergencies, it would not meet the needs. As we're seeing in the last few years, wildfires, floods, the resupply challenges in the Sahtu, all of these are wildfire emergencies. I could even tie in some of what's been happening in projects that are seeing delays. So it's not that -- that little bit alone is not going to be enough to address all of the energy challenges or climate change challenges that we have here.
So, I mean, it's been over $100 million, if you will, on climate emergencies in the last couple of years. I appreciate the desire is to have a better understanding of this tax and what we're doing with it. Again, I'm definitely going to go back and see if we can explain more where this year's money, why there's a change this year. Happy to do that. I'm happy to sit down and have that conversation. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Colleagues, time for oral questions has expired.
