Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Kalgutkar.

Thank you, deputy minister. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. I am looking at the carbon tax offset. Can the Minister explain to me the purpose of that program? Mahsi.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The carbon tax offset is in place to offset the carbon tax that is imposed on a variety of different fuel taxes. The offset is there to ensure that particularly residents and businesses in the Northwest Territories have some ability to offset the impact of the carbon tax. This is done by way of rebates and offsets that continue to increase as the carbon tax itself continues to increase over time. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

I am wondering about that program. You are offsetting stuff. I know it's to help people who are actually paying for their own fuel, but I also note at the same time that there are many residents who live in public housing units with the NWT Housing Corporation who don't actually pay into that. Because we are giving back a lot of money to the residents, I don't know how much of this is actually kept by the GNWT. I am just thinking more in line with using the offsets that we get or the tax that we get and line it up more for green energy projects. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The cost-of-living offset does go to all residents, and there is certainly a portion that is also available for large emitters in terms of their ability to undertake projects with respect to more green-type energy. Specific to the example of someone who may be living in public housing, they would still have access to the cost-of-living offset. They may not necessarily receive some of the more specific ones. To answer the question, everyone does get the cost-of-living offset, regardless of whether they are paying into it or not. Essentially, it is being subsidized by some of the larger increases or larger revenue sources that we have on this. I should also note, really, it is derived from the Canada-wide system, so we can't be too flexible about what we're doing here. To a certain degree, we have to go back and make sure that we are in line with the expectations that we have to comply with our agreement with Canada. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Are there any further questions under the management board secretariat? Seeing no questions, I will call the page. Finance, management board secretariat, operations expenditure summary, 2021-2022 Main Estimates, $97,683,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. We will now move to page 155, Office of the Comptroller General, with information on pages 158 to 162. The information items on the Northwest Territories Heritage Fund and Cannabis Revolving Fund, sorry. Question? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at page 156. My question is about the $9-million interest on the Deh Cho Bridge. Can I just get a refresher of how long we will be paying that for? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My recollection is -- let's not go with my recollection. Let me ask the deputy minister if he has a more certain recollection, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Deputy minister.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps this is just me not understanding how things are listed here. I also see we have short-term interest here. Can I just get clarification that these two interest payments then show up on the overall debt figures for the GNWT in the borrowing plan? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, that's correct.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Deh Cho Bridge is long past any of us in this House's time, but it's a reminder that we love these large infrastructure projects and perhaps, at the time, they seem very enticing. I don't look forward to the Member who has to sit here in 2046 and ask why we're still paying $9 million a year in interest. Actually, perhaps by that time, we will have paid some of it down. I'm not sure how the financing works. Moving on there, can I get clarification? We spent $7 million here on a territorial subsidy program. My understanding is that then subsidizes the rate of power across the Northwest Territories essentially to be pinned at the rate in Yellowknife. Can I just get a little bit more clarification if that's correct and how that works? Thank you, Madam Chair.