Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am not a Member of this committee, but I did sit in on much of their deliberations. I did attend the public hearing that was held here in Yellowknife, and I am disappointed. Well, I want to thank the committee for allowing me to do that and attempt to get a better understanding of the bill and the approach that is being taken by our government with regard to carbon pricing.
I do have major concerns with the bills, particularly Bill 42, and my concerns revolve around the lack of public reporting. I have made that well known on the floor of this House, that we need to have integrated and comprehensive public reporting of the money that is collected, what it's used for, and its effects on greenhouse gas reductions, and how we are accomplishing the pan-Canadian framework target over time. Unfortunately, the bill really does not contain any provisions for any kind of public reporting, and all of the rebates or grants are going to be determined by regulations set afterwards. Although I know I have heard my colleagues across the floor talk about this is a made-in-the-North approach, it's really a made-by-Cabinet approach that I cannot accept.
It's also linked to what I believe is an inadequate energy strategy, where 44 percent of the greenhouse gas reductions are supposed to come from Taltson expansion. There is no money to do it. There is no feasibility study. There is no business plan. There is no market for Taltson expansion, so I can't see how the energy strategy and the investments that this carbon tax, the small investments this carbon tax, may allow can enable us in any way to actually reach the pan-Canadian framework target.
The carbon tax is also linked to the Climate Change Strategic Framework, which does not address the climate change audit that was carried out by the Auditor General of Canada, that recommended that there needed to be structures, an organization, put in place to ensure that there would be climate change leadership within our government. We do not have that yet, and the Climate Change Strategic Framework does not deliver on the inadequacies pointed out by the Auditor General. We have, I guess, a deputy-minister-level committee, but there is no leadership council; there is no requirement for consideration of climate change implications in terms of Cabinet or Financial Management Board decisions; there is no coordinated reporting. There is just no structure or organization that is going to establish the necessary leadership within our government to ensure that we start to take real action on climate change.
I agree with my colleague from Kam Lake, that the information about the federal backstop has not really been provided to us, and I will have questions for the Minister on the bill when he is at the witness table with his staff, around what the federal backstop really means for the Northwest Territories and some of the information that our government has put out about what the federal backstop is, really, what it means, so, for all of those. I believe that a carbon pricing system is a very essential tool in terms of taking action on climate change. Unfortunately, this plan doesn't meet the needs that we have with regard to climate change. It is largely been designed, as the Minister has repeated many, many times, this is about mitigating the impact of a carbon tax on our citizens. It is not about actually addressing climate change. That should be the primary purpose of a carbon pricing system here. For all of those sorts of reasons, Mr. Chair, I cannot support the bill. I will have further questions on the specifics of the bill when the Minister is at the table. Thank you, Mr. Chair.