Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have a tax-related question as well. It pertains to offsetting costs that we know are currently there and that are going to get greater. I am specifically referring to the costs as they related to greenhouse gas emissions, to coming emission targets to the impact we know that climate change is having on us right now as a result of those greenhouse gas emissions. For example, with the permafrost where we have already spent millions trying to fix buildings and schools, the affect on our environment.
The plans we have in our hydro plans to try to be more responsible in terms of minimizing our carbon footprint are severely hampered by lack of funds, yet we know that industry is contributing 77 percent to those emissions. We know that the pipeline is going to add further to that. We have offsets in mind, but we have no money. We have a responsibility as citizens of the country, as citizens of the world, to do our share. The one way we can do that to find the money to pay for the offsets is a carbon tax where the large final emitters can pay. They can't come to the Northwest Territories, extra resources, make billions of dollars, help pollute the climate and not be responsible for some of those costs.
We should not be expected to pick those up out of our own-source revenues, especially when we don't have a revenue resource sharing agreement. So the question comes down to the kind of tax structure we are going to have that ties into your macroeconomic policy.
Preston Manning had a very interesting article. He talked about focus on gross domestic product but what he said we should also have is a gross domestic waste calculation as well because that's part of the full economic cost of doing business up here, but it never gets included. All we talk about is the money that is going to be made, and not the mess that's left behind.
The question I have is to me, maybe not in this Assembly, but as we are setting the stage for the next Assembly we have to be able to fund the hydro in the small communities, the community energy plans, all the other things the Energy Strategy is going to talk about. The one way we can do that is with a carbon tax. If Imperial doesn't want to be bothered with being environmentally responsible, they don't even necessarily agree that there is greenhouse gas problems and all these other issues,
but we have accepted that. Then we have to plan for a way to cover that. We can do a tax system through a carbon tax system like many other jurisdictions; Norway, New Zealand, Australia. Many other jurisdictions have already done it.
The Minister's comment, as we look at this piece, it's going to be one way we can get revenue and not have to stand cap in hand asking Ottawa for a few more shekels. So that's the issue of the carbon tax. We know these costs are already there and we're already paying for them out of our pocket and we can't afford to do the offsets unless we do something like that. Thank you.