Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the call for more activities in the NWT communities is one Regular Members have heard multiple times in relation to child and family services, homelessness prevention, and suicide prevention.
Mr. Speaker, there is so much to be learned from sport - how to be a team player, how to focus on what we can control and let go of what we can't, and how to release some good old endorphins. Sports connect us, can help us learn to problem solve, and work wonders for our mental health. But activity is more than sport. It's recreation and physical activity that provide a link to culture, tradition, land, and physical and mental health.
According to the NWT Association of Communities, when the cross to municipalities increases, the first thing to go is programming which is often recreational programming. Over the past three years, NWT communities have felt inflationary increases and operating and infrastructure costs. And while this government will achieve its goal of putting an additional $5 million toward the municipal funding gap, with inflation this investment will not succeed in reducing the municipal funding gap by the intended $5 million.
Mr. Speaker, the municipal funding gap isn't a new budgeting challenge for NWT communities. But we have heard how it is going to become even further squeezed with the upcoming rise in the carbon tax, which does not include revenue sharing with municipalities or NGOs. NWTAC says carbon tax costs are expected to add $2 million to community budgets and that non-tax based communities, the NWT's smallest and most remote where increasing own source revenues is not an option, will need to cut programming to accommodate carbon tax shortfalls.
In the NWT's tax based communities, covering the carbon tax cost will again rely on yet another tax increase. Here in Yellowknife, 2022 saw a nine percent property tax increase. And in 2023, city council passed a 4.37 percent tax increase. Continued increases are already forecast for 2024 and 2025.
Mr. Speaker, our communities are calling for an increase in activity infrastructure and programming as we work toward building a stronger healthier North. But I worry the true cost of excluding municipalities and NGOs from carbon tax revenue sharing is the unintended consequence of reducing programs in so many of our communities that need it most and a continued increase in NWT cost of living that is hollowing out our middle class and threatening our population growth. Not only do we need to close the municipal funding gap, Mr. Speaker, but we need to ensure that our municipalities aren't further financially burdened by the carbon tax. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
