No, I have not received any official notice from the Dominion Diamond Mines about this situation. What I can update this House, I did have a conversation with Dominion Diamonds at one point a number of months ago around the concern of high absentee of employees at the site. He said that, at that point, it was something of a concern of theirs, and when I'd seen it in the paper, that is the first time I have actually seen it in writing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the Minister for that information. I note that, in the socio-economic agreement covering this project, it says, "Selection, hiring, promoting transferring, dismissing, or otherwise disciplining of all of its employees for the jobs on the project shall be within the sole discretion of Dominion Diamond." It is kind of disappointing to me that we don't really have any hooks on this and that they may not even be required to provide notice to us. Does our government have any authority or power to protect these union jobs that are largely held by long-time and Indigenous NWT residents?

One thing, let's make it quite clear, most of these jobs, as I have been informed, are mostly NWT residents, and we are quite concerned about that. Particularly as the Minister of ITI, I have a very big concern about that. We want to keep these jobs in our territory, but, at the same time, this is an issue between the union and Dominion Diamond. If there is an issue that they can't work out and they want someone to help facilitate, I would certainly direct my department to try to help them do that. We want to make sure that Dominion Diamond, regardless of the outcome of this, that they meet their socio-economic commitments in their agreements.

I would like to thank the Minister for that, but how is he going to do it? Is the Minister prepared to reach out and actually talk to Dominion Diamond about these layoffs and stop them?

We have the SEAs. That is what requires them to base their commitments on. That is what we try to hold them accountable to. At the end of the day, this is something that we want to see the union and the company work out, if possible. We are certainly concerned about it. We are willing to help, like I said, facilitate anything to help move this forward, but, at the end of the day, if they cannot come to an agreement to continue on with these 150 employees, labour law is the ultimate responsibility of the federal government, but we will keep an eye on this situation. I will certainly have discussions with the president of Dominion Diamond.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I think I heard him almost say that he was going to try to meet with the president of Dominion Diamond about this. You know, this is a Minister who is very interested in promoting mining and all of the benefits that it can bring. We have these jobs now in the Northwest Territories. We need our government and Cabinet to actually step up to the plate and do something to protect them, so what is Cabinet's position on this issue, and what is the Minister prepared to do about it?

Yes, I am the champion of mining in the Northwest Territories, and I will continue to do that. At the same time, this is an agreement between Dominion Diamond and their employees and the union, and this is something that needs to be worked out between them. We do not impose ourselves on contracts or employees in a manner that tries to tell a private business how to run their business. I will not do that, but I am very concerned about meeting our socio-economic agreements, and we will work with all parties involved to try to ensure as many northern jobs are protected and that commitments are met in the socio-economic agreements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was talking earlier today in my Member's statement about taxation, and I asked the Minister some questions. I would like to follow up with more questions to the Minister of Finance: can the Minister advise, of that $9.6 million, how much is owed in taxes by the residents of the hamlet of Fort Liard and have a breakdown of principle and interest? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the principle that is owed by the Hamlet of Fort Liard is approximately $700,000: $699,675; interest would be $1,169,999 million; a total of $1.8 million that is owed in taxes by the Hamlet of Fort Liard.

I thank the Minister for that answer. So, we are talking about possible solutions in there. When we are trying to move forward, would the government be willing to waive the interest fee if the residents come up with a plan to pay the principle of the taxation? I am not asking the taxation to be waived. I am asking if we can come up with a plan to pay for these taxes.

Under the property tax legislation, outstanding interest charges are considered to be a part of the tax outstanding. Remission of any property tax or interest would be decision of the executive council. As I said before, we want to work with the residents on a repayment plan, and, if we start forgiving interest, then we will have to do it across the Northwest Territories.

In tax-based communities, people pay a property tax to get the services that are offered within that community. In the GTA, they pay the property tax to government with funding through the hamlets and community governments. We pay these. We pay the costs of maintaining that community, and people expect services, but a lot of times they are not willing to live up to their end of the bargain, which is to pay their community tax. Mr. Speaker, I am going in circles here, so I will stop there. Thank you.

I thank the Minister. I understand we can go around and around in circles. What I am trying to do is come up with a plan that we can move forward for the residents of Fort Liard. The problem is that somebody made a promise to them and now, no fault of their own, they made a decision that they were not going to pay their taxes, so what we are trying to do is come up with a plan to do it. Previously, the Minister talked about the Property Assessment and Taxation Act, and, if I understand him correctly, outstanding interest charges on property taxes are considered part of the taxation outstanding. Would it be possible to separate the tax and interest component in the act to potentially waive this fee?

When I said that I was going in circles, I meant my answer was going in circles and I was trying to find a place to end the answer, not the questioning itself. The Department of Finance, we do track the principle and interest separately for each individual account, and all taxation legislation provides for an interest component, which motivates residents to keep their accounts with the government current. Changing the legislation to set up for an interest and then to potentially waive the fee would be contradictory and problematic as a policy choice. The government does need to continue to charge interest on delinquent accounts. As mentioned earlier, the structure is currently there to remit all or a portion of the tax on the authority of the executive council.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer. I understand that, but, if we want to move forward, we have got to come up with a plan to work with these people. I mean, that is my challenge, is that I am sitting here right now; we are not having any direction to encourage these people to pay their taxes because we are in trouble with that, so what I am trying to do is come up with a solution. Would the Minister be willing to have his staff go into the community to work with the affected residents to come up with a plan to try to resolve this issue? Just not talking about the interest, but I am talking about the taxation. If we can get that resolved, then we can move forward.

The quickest solution to the situation that we face right now is for people to honour the commitments that they have made and pay their property taxes. That way, we are in a position to provide the level of service that they have become accustomed to. We need that to happen, but, failing that, we understand that there are some issues. Again, some people are so far into tax arrears that they find it problematic to try to work their way out of it. We are interested in coming up with a repayment plan. I think the Member's question was: would we go into the community and meet with them? I think, as he said, as the Member said in his Member's statement before, we were there in March. We would be willing to go back. We would have to have a coordinated approach with the First Nations government in the hamlet, because we want to make sure that we are all on the same page and all want to resolve the issue. So the answer is, yes, we would consider going into the community again. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On May 25^th, the Minister of Health and Social Services spoke on the GNWT's public education awareness campaign related to cannabis in preparation for legalization and in preparation to us passing our own laws. I don't want to focus on what is obviously being proposed that we will debate at a later day, but on his statement. It seems like there is a lot of work that has been undertaken already on educating people. Could the Minister provide approximate costs of what has been spent on this public campaign and where the resources are coming from? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have those exact figures in front of me, but I am happy to pull that information together and share it with the Member and committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister. I would very much appreciate that. I do not recall any specific spending in the last budget towards cannabis public education. This is obviously an issue that is very important as we roll out this process. Can the Minister just confirm whether or not it was additional money voted in the budget or whether it is internal resources from the department proper?