This is page numbers 3161 - 3198 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was going.

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Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you to the Minister for the reply. I mean, it's good to hear that the Minister envisions that there is going to be some future where there is opportunity for potential retail sales. I do recognize that the growing of cannabis will still be under federal legislation. I guess the question then is: we know that it is going to be sold through liquor stores in the meantime, but has the government or will the government, in fact, reconsider this, given the input received from entrepreneurs wanting to get into this business? Can we right now start to give consideration to local opportunities, northern opportunities for retail of cannabis?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I take the Member's point, but the approach is to start cautiously. I mean, this is a new activity, and as I said in my previous reply, there is an opportunity, once we get through this, to have the Liquor Commission looking at licensing retailers for the sale of cannabis.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Again, yes, I appreciate that it seems like there is going to be some opportunity, but it seems to be in the distant future, and we are trying to narrow it down then, I guess. If it is not going to be immediately right now while we are legalizing cannabis, then can the Minister maybe outline when it might be that we can give consideration to this?

The fear here, as I noted in my Member's statement, is that we are going to lose this opportunity. If we wait too long, then the opportunity will be lost, and folks will just find ways in which to acquire their cannabis. Can the Minister please outline for us when this government plans on allowing the public to take advantage of economic opportunities to retail cannabis?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I did point out that you will be able to purchase cannabis legally from liquor stores that are currently under contract with the Liquor Commission, and I did say that we will have a look at the possibility of going out to private retailers. I did not have a timeline on that, and I am not going to give a timeline, but again, because this is completely new right across the country, we want to make sure that we are in a position that we are able to do it right.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I know it is going to sound like I am repeating myself, and I am probably going to get a repetitive answer, but there are other jurisdictions around the country that are already doing this. This is not something that we have to reinvent. Our neighbour, our sister territory Nunavut, is giving consideration as we speak to the privatization aspect of cannabis retail. Will the Minister at least reach out to his colleagues in Nunavut and ask them by what means they are giving consideration to privatizing the sales of cannabis and report back to us? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I did not close the door on the possibility of going out to private retailers, which a lot of these liquor stores in the Northwest Territories are, private retailers, but I did not close that door. I did say we will give some consideration as to a specific timeline. I do not have that, but I can assure the Member that we will be giving some consideration, and to answer his question, yes, we will reach out to our counterparts in Nunavut to see what their approach has been. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. I'd like to start with something really simple: can the Minister of Finance tell the public whether our government actually believes in climate change and that carbon pricing is an essential tool to address this threat? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. The Member is asking for the Minister's opinion. Can he reiterate the question?

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. Yes, I can clarify that. Can the Minister of Finance, then, tell the public: what is the position of our government with regard to climate change, impacts on our environment and our people, and whether carbon pricing is an essential tool to address this threat? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Finance.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the position of the government is, because we see the effects of climate change quicker than the rest of the country, of course we know that is a serious concern, especially up in the Arctic. That is why we have taken steps through the Climate Change Strategic Framework and the carbon pricing paper that we are working on to try and help mitigate the effects of climate change on the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Apologies for not offering the question properly. I appreciate the response from the Minister. He did not really address the issue, though, of carbon pricing as an essential tool. Earlier today I tried to jog the memory of our Cabinet colleagues on the issue of carbon pricing. The public commentary for the discussion paper and survey closed on September 15th of last year. Can the Minister of Finance tell us if and when a "what we heard" report is going to be released and whether the written submissions received will also be released?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

We are planning on sharing the information that was gathered. I think we have a briefing scheduled with committee during this session, so we plan on sharing our findings with committee, and then we need to share some of the information we have gathered with the federal government, and then we will be in a position to share with the public as well.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for that explanation. It sounds like there are a lot of things that are still coming, but we actually have a hard deadline we have to deal with. The federal government keeps moving forward with the national approach on climate change that will allow Canada to meet its international obligations. We now have a deadline of March 30th, about seven weeks away, to make a decision about our own carbon pricing system or rely on the federal backstop. Can the Minister tell us how he intends to meet this federal deadline and still include the input of committee, and perhaps the public, on his proposed course of actions?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

The Member is correct. We do have a very hard deadline, but we have done a lot of work on this. We do plan on sharing our findings with committee, and one of the challenges we had is that we wanted to get out there and we wanted to get opinions from across the Northwest Territories. Using the federal backstop, we wanted to make sure that the Northwest Territories was well-positioned to mitigate the effects of carbon pricing on the residents of the Northwest Territories, and I think, through the correspondence and the surveys and the discussions we have had, that we have had a lot of feedback on how people thought it would affect them. I think the sign of a good government is to make sure that we mitigate the effects that it is going to have on the residents of the Northwest Territories.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks again to the Minister for that, but we do not have a firm schedule from the Minister. He has admitted there is a lot of work that has to be done. We do not even have the results from the discussion paper consultations. He has to work with committee. He says he is going to talk to the public. Can the Minister commit to table a schedule of these sort of consultations leading up to the March 30th deadline in this House as soon as possible? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I am not quite sure exactly when our briefing is with committee. I will have to get that information, and in the consensus-style government we work in, we want to share our information with committee before we share with anyone else.

We will have that conversation, but I can assure committee and members of the public that this government will be ready by the March 30th deadline. I know the federal government wants the submissions by then. They are going to review them, and then possibly come out in September with some comments on the material that we have submitted.

Again, I will say, at the end of the day, our main goal here is to work with what we have to make sure that there is not a negative impact on the people of the Northwest Territories. We want to let the federal government know of our unique situation up here. We have told them that a few times. Hopefully, they will recognize that and give us some assurance that they will take that into account when they review our document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice. The Finance Minister announced $300,000 to establish a historical case unit within the RCMP in the budget that he presented last week. He said that two of our RCMP and one civil servant will "work to protect the integrity of the evidence in these historical files and to make further advances in solving these cases." Can the Minister of Justice tell us what this means?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister for Justice.

Louis Sebert

Louis Sebert Thebacha

The Member opposite is quite correct. There are $304,000 of funding approved for the establishment of a historical case unit within the RCMP. As the Member alluded to in her question, there are two RCMP members and a civilian involved in this. What they are doing is they are looking through historical cases that fall into several categories. They are going back to 1985, 33 years ago. They are looking at homicides; suspicious deaths; missing persons where foul play is suspected; any missing person where the body has not been located; or when unidentified human remains have been found. That is what they are going to be looking at going back to 1985.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you to the Minister of Justice for that answer. How does the mandate for this unit differ from the day-to-day work of the RCMP in solving crime? What is new?