Masi. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not aware of us determining our carbon value, but we are working to come up with a new climate change strategy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Some jurisdictions have come up publicly opposing carbon pricing, but the NWT, to some degree, has asked for flexibility as Ottawa is pressured internationally to adopt a carbon pricing scheme. Can the Premier describe how the flexible approach will benefit us? In other words, what do we intend to accomplish during this period of flexibility?

We have not discounted the fact that everybody is looking at carbon pricing or moving to a low-carbon economy. In our view, we can reduce our carbon emissions and our greenhouse gas emissions without having to introduce carbon pricing mechanisms, whether it be a carbon tax. We've already shown that it can be done. We've reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent since 2005 levels. We have indicated that to the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister has said that he's prepared to work with us to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and it remains to be seen what form that will take.

As I've said before in this House, we are prepared to go out this summer. We will ask the people of the Northwest Territories if they are willing to have a carbon tax, because we already live in a very high-cost part of Canada, and I don't think we should be penalized for where we live. We think we should have a very similar standard of living as the rest of Canada, and we're a very small population. Certainly if the population of the Northwest Territories wants to have a carbon tax, then that's what we will be consulting on, as well as what form our climate change strategy should take.

Thank you to the Premier, I appreciate his reply because, quite frankly, he has answered my next question, which was around the idea of, you know, as a territory we need to understand a little bit more about the potential for carbon tax, not necessarily the impacts that it might have as it relates to the cost of living, but the impacts that it might have as it relates to benefits, including financial ones that we might receive as a territory out of a carbon tax from a national carbon tax.

These are questions that need to be asked. A lot of us, myself included, don't really understand, and we want to know. So further to the Premier's comments, this government is committed to going out and gaining or establishing public consultation, which would be very much appreciated and I look forward to that, and I support the government in doing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to talk further on this. I mean, there's a number of jurisdictions in Canada that have already introduced carbon pricing in one form or another. B.C. has had it for some time now; Quebec has some form of it through their gasoline tax; Manitoba just recently announced that they will be doing the same; Alberta, our neighbours, just passed legislation, most of it will be paid by industry. When I asked the Premier, she said, they were going to do it by exception; if there's communities that have no employment, that have no prosperity, they would exempt them from paying carbon taxes. So perhaps we could have something similar in the Northwest Territories. So there are lots of jobs, perhaps people will be willing to pay more so to protect the environment.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I had a good meeting with the Minister of Lands earlier today on the issue of financial securities, but I need to follow-up on some of the issues raised in the environmental audit that I spoke about earlier today. The GNWT response to the audit finding simply stated there was agreement with the intent of the recommendation and that work would be done with other departments, as required. Can the Minister of Lands tell this House why his department did not fully support the audit finding and what parts the department did not agree with? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Minister of Lands.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our response reflects that securities management is a shared responsibility and there's authority for securities in the MVRMA that extent well beyond our lands role. We will work with the other authorities that have responsibility for securities in order to meet the intent of the recommendations found in the audit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the response from the Minister. The recommendation was aimed at us, and there are things that we kind of should be doing. The auditor could not confirm that we actually hold all the financial security, as required under land use permits and water licenses. What specific actions is the Minister taking to ensure we can actually track this information better than the Federal Government that did not really do a good job looking after our resources?

We actually just received approval yesterday through a sub-process to implement information, our securities tracking system, I think that will give us the ability to keep up-to-date. As we learn more and more about our roles in the whole thing, you know, being in existence for two years, I think we've improved, and we look to improve even further. An opportunity we had today too was to meet with committee. We gave them an update as to some of the work we're doing. We got some feedback from committee. But the major one is the securities information tracking system, which will allow us to be able to track our securities. Again, we will keep Members informed.

I appreciate the response from the Minister. I know the money for that tracking system was carried over from last year. We're going to hopefully spend it this year and get the work done, and I look forward to getting those updates. But the auditor could not locate any vision or implementation documents related to our management of financial securities. Can the Minister tell this House if such documents exist and when the public will be fully engaged on a sound financial security system to prevent public liabilities, as set out in our mandate?

Mr. Speaker, we are currently developing a work plan and I have made the commitment that, once that work is completed, I will share the findings and receive feedback from committee as to what the next steps are. As with most things within the territorial government, we always welcome public feedback, and once we develop the work plan and we receive some feedback from committee, then we can determine the next steps as to the actual public consultation part of it. We always welcome any opportunities that the public wants to make comments on some of the work we're doing. We will get the work plan done and share it with committee, and then we'll determine next steps from there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the response. I look forward to working with the Minister on this reviewing of the work plan when it comes forward. In this House I've outlined the financial warning signs whereby we might acquire additional financial liabilities with regard to our surface leases for the Cantung Mine and Prairie Creek properties, and I don't feel that we've got detailed information on what this government is doing to prevent liabilities from these operations. Could the Minister tell us when we can expect to have a fully functioning financial security and monitoring system in place to prevent further public liabilities? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

We are currently in the process of staffing our project assessment of financial liabilities assurance division. This is a highly specialized occupation. We thought that, with the slow-down in some of the work in the Northwest Territories, we'd get more interest, so we're actually just reviewing how we put out our competition, and I can assure the Member and people in the Northwest Territories that the Department of Lands and the Government of the Northwest Territories, we take our role very seriously as to the environment and the lands that have come over to us though devolution. We've heard many cases in the past where we didn't have that authority and some of the environmental issues we've had to deal with we've had to inherit. Luckily with some of the ones that came over through devolution, Canada has accepted the responsibility for remediation. That's in the past. On a go-forward basis, we are going to ensure that we take our roles very seriously and ensure that there are sufficient securities in place for any environmental work in the Northwest Territories.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Masi. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the end of the last fiscal year there were 182 positions that were decentralized from Yellowknife to regions outside.

That's good to hear. Does the Premier have information about what is being decentralized to Hay River in this budget? I ask because the affected employees in Hay River are getting more worried every day they don't get an offer.

It's a bit of a complicated question, because there was a net change of 97 positions between 2015-2016 Main Estimates and the 2016-2017 Main Estimates. At the end of the day there was a total increase of 41 positions, of which 15 went to the regions outside Yellowknife. Fort Smith got one, Hay River had eight, Inuvik had five, and Lutselk'e had one.

Thank you for that answer. I was just wondering, is this an ongoing process? Is the government always looking at decentralization? What are the criteria that it bases its decision on?