Thank you, Mr. Chair. This House is well aware of the shortfall to the municipal financing formula that is putting increased cost pressures on our local governments in the Northwest Territories. We have heard many of those governments be concerned that they will be passing on costs to their residents as a result of the shortfall.
The concern that the standing committee heard directly from the NWT Association of Communities is that, without specific rebates or grant programs provided to municipalities in light of the carbon tax, the additional taxes that will be paid on municipal vehicle fleets or other things that are not automatically exempt will drive the cost of operating those local governments. As a result, those costs will either have to be passed on to residents in the form of higher taxes or a reduction in services. This is already a challenging state of financial affairs for our communities, who are dealing with a systemic gap of resources, and this is only going to add more cost pressures.
Committee felt very strongly that we needed to do more than simply draw attention to the problem, but make a concrete recommendation on how to resolve it, which is ultimately more funding to compensate for these additional costs, so that we take the pressure off of cost of living of Northerners. Thank you, Mr. Chair.