Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a spectre is haunting our North - the spectre of a zombie carbon tax. Soon, every -- or currently, every major political party leader in Canada at the federal level, Mark -- or soon to be federal leader, Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland, Pierre Poilievre, even Jagmeet Singh, have given a death sentence to the consumer carbon tax, and the date of its demise is now set for March 9th WHEN Prime Minister Trudeau's successor will be chosen. All those who are vying to replace him have made it clear they'll be abandoning the consumer carbon tax and removing or amending the federal backstop for all provinces and territories. This means no consumer carbon tax in almost every jurisdiction in Canada except for us here in the Northwest Territories where our government is still relying on its so-called made-in-the North carbon pricing regime, and it will be in place long after almost everyone else has shifted responsibility back to Ottawa.
Mr. Speaker, the leading contender to lead Canada in Ottawa, if you believe the polls, the NWT's own Mr. Carney has declared the consumer carbon tax a divisive policy that must be replaced with a more effective alternative. His main competitor, my friend Chrystia Freeland, who herself enforced the tax as a federal Minister of Finance, has vowed to scrap the policy in no uncertain terms. The leader of the opposition meanwhile has made axe the tax his slogan so popular it could even be found on some front porches in my riding of Range Lake. Even the NDP, a party well known for its tax and spend mantra, has dropped the carbon tax on their platform. As soon as Trudeau leaves Rideau Hall for the last time, he's taking the tax with him and putting all the responsibility for its continued existence squarely on the shoulders of our territorial government.
So, Mr. Speaker, with such a dramatic change in policy in the last few months at the federal level, our constituents are looking for similar developments here at home. We've heard loud and clear from voters during the last election that the policy's not working for Northerners. Our Premier acknowledges much when he immediately declared his desire for a northern carveout, and I have brought forward a bill, the Carbon Tax Repeal Act, to make that so. So let's get this done. Let's get ahead of the curb. Let's not be caught off guard and wait months to negotiate a new deal with Ottawa. Let's kill the tax now and save Northerners some money. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Members' statements. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
