Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased that we're joined today by Captain Jason Brinson of the Salvation Army in Yellowknife, where they provide invaluable services to the vulnerable population in food hampers all the way through to withdrawal management and sheltering. Thank you.

Thank you. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to recognize Kam Lake resident Karen Patterson Wiley who has joined us in the gallery today. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Replies to budget address, day 1 of 7. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today we talked earlier in regards to the potential carbon tax coming forward to the communities of Nunakput and across our territory. Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister doing to ensure that the carbon tax does not increase the cost of living in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Minister responsible for Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so, again, the carbon tax is not a tax of the making of the Government of the Northwest Territories. It is a federal tax. But by trying to maintain our own system to it, we're well placed -- or better placed, in my view, to be responsive to the needs of individual communities, including those of the residents in Nunakput. So what the Department of Finance has done is calculate what we would anticipate both the direct and indirect costs of the federal carbon tax would be and we've divided up based on three zones of the Northwest Territories - high fuel use, medium fuel use, and low fuel use. Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, and Ulukhaktok are all in a high-use area and, on that basis, they would be receiving an amount per individual that we calculate to be a coverage of the expected both indirect and direct costs of the fuel tax.

Residents of Tuktoyaktuk would be in the second zone. They'd be receiving an amount under the zone B allowance, which we would expect should, again, fully cover the costs of -- or the average costs for those residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That really -- I'm really happy that they're looking at this. This is the first time we heard on this side of the House you're going in the zone system. And I'm really thinking that if that's the case, Mr. Speaker, what's the Minister doing to ensure that the carbon tax does not further increase the cost of living, especially the residents in the communities in the High Arctic who are already paying the highest cost of living and the highest tax brackets right now, and we have no way of employment because our government has no projects going on in the smaller communities. So it's a lot tougher to get work. So what is this Minister doing? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not exactly sure what the question is with respect to the carbon tax. Certainly, Mr. Speaker, in regards to seeking out opportunities to find alternative fuel sources and energy sources, that is certainly always an effort that is being made, certainly led by my colleagues over in Infrastructure, under the energy initiatives, and that is something for which there is additional funding in this budget.

With respect to finding better alternatives for employment, that too, again, is a priority of the government and certainly is something that money departments are working on in order to see increases in small community employment. There's funding, again, in this budget in regards to regional tourism strategies. I know I've worked with some of the mayors from the Member's riding around tourism and cruise ships. So there's certainly always those efforts. But as far as the carbon tax is concerned, Mr. Speaker, again, we do want to look right now under the zone C, or the high fuel use. It's really -- there's only five communities, and three of them are from Nunakput. So recognizing that they're under those high cost pressures, and it would be our intention to make sure that they're not seeing a disproportionate impact from it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I'm hearing is there's no commitment from this government to protect residents, especially the residents in the High Arctic, with the most impacted of this implementation of this tax going into our communities. Mr. Speaker, we live it. You live it too. We live in -- there's no jobs, nothing available for the communities that our people are needing, needing work, but we're still paying it. Either there's no work or not, we're still paying that tax. There's 33 communities across this territory, Mr. Speaker, that need help. It's not only the big -- the cities and the towns. It's the communities that need the help the most where they have nothing going on.

Is this Minister going to, and this government going to protect us, in regards to letting the federal government take their dirty work and let us manage it for them? That's a shame. We should be working with them -- let them take the federal backstop -- our territorial government should take the federal backstop like the Yukon did and that Nunavut government did and make a stand for their people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the federal backstop is not going to be providing individualized COLA payments -- or individual payments based upon communities in the Northwest Territories. More likely than not, and I can't say for sure because I don't know what they're going to do. I certainly had no control over the fact that they decided to change their program to remove the fact that they're being a connection to the pricing signal, remove the exemption for heating fuel. That was entirely a federal decision. If we put ourselves into that, into their system, we have even less control over what happens with the revenues that are generated from Northwest Territories residents. What we've done, Mr. Speaker, is try to find a way to look carefully at every one of our communities, take in the division of those 33 communities, looked at their average costs from carbon tax, estimated what the costs would be now under the new federal system, and design a program where the individual and average cost to each resident can be met using a zone system, which was an idea brought forward by my colleagues on the other side. I'm happy to have it, especially with respect to the High Arctic communities. So the zone system of providing COLA payments back to them will indeed address that very issue. Mr. Speaker, Nunavut is not going to be -- they're going to also have to phase out their system. Mr. Speaker, Yukon sees everyone getting the same. If you're outside Whitehorse, you get an extra 10 percent. That won't meet the needs of the residents in Nunakput if we give them an extra 10 percent. It can be much more nuanced under our system, Mr. Speaker. And I'd be happy to review every single one of the average payments per all 33 communities with any Member of the House or provide that charting to this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we haven't seen that detail, the detail that the Minister is saying. And she's the one that brought it up. I think that what we should be doing is in regards to -- shouldn't be looking for handouts. We're really good at that. This is -- we're resource rich and cash poor. There's no jobs. There's nothing going on in the territory. We're beggars in our own land. The federal government should step up and assist us and work with us on a federal backstop and not letting us do their dirty work, Mr. Speaker. 14 percent we're already paying in our ridings, in your riding, Mr. Speaker. Why? Why? We're the ones that -- we're being penalized because we live where we live. And in Oh Canada, the True North Strong and Free, that's what it should be. They should be paying us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I've had multiple opportunities, publicly, in terms of briefings with the Members from standing committee as well in correspondence that I had marked as not being confidential, detailing the outline. I am happy to table the approach here and will do so this session. Mr. Speaker, let me take up the argument and actually quote myself and things that I have said. Specifically, it's this: The federal government recognizes that small countries and developing countries are having to pay carbon tax even though they didn't have the benefits of industrialization at the same time as other countries did using fossil fuels.

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories is in that situation on behalf of Canada. We didn't have the opportunity to industrialize and grow our economy at the same time as the rest of Canada did when fossil fuel use was still actively happening and allowing opportunities for economies to grow on the backs of GHG emissions. That is not the way of things and we're the ones paying the price on carbon tax, paying the price with climate change now.

I agree completely with what's being said. But, Mr. Speaker, I do not want to relinquish control of those revenues that are being paid by residents of the Northwest Territories. I want to find a system that best meets the needs of the Northwest Territories residents, takes a nuanced approach to each community, tries to find a way so that there is as little impact to those who are least able to pay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, this work arises from the mandate document that is published on the GNWT's website, specifically under the priority commitment to adopt a benefit retention approach to economic development, a commitment that was agreed to on behalf of the Assembly, and then the mandate document that was determined thereafter where it says, host a socio-economic forum with representatives from the mining industry, Indigenous governments, and the GNWT, to identify ways to work together to increase the socio-economic benefits from resource development.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, we went further than that, though, and did in fact invite, and have involved since day one, the Native Women's Association and have certainly encouraged participation from all Members of this Cabinet, which certainly includes input from other departments, including ECE. And so, Mr. Speaker, you know, again -- and on top of that, Mr. Speaker, one last thing. This work has been going on since 2017. The Mineral Resources Act has been under contemplation since 2017. Nothing is lost. Any input in that process speaking to socio-economic agreements is not lost. And any opportunity that other organizations may want to contact my office, to contact ITI, have been met with and welcomed and will continue to be welcomed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to pick which question I'm going to answer, Mr. Speaker, but let me see how many of them I can get through in a reasonable amount of time.

There is a fairly detailed report, Mr. Speaker. It's extensive, it's lengthy, and it certainly is being produced in the context again of a massive project under the Mineral Resources Act to develop regulations that will apply to that entire act under multiple streams, including socio-economic agreements, which right now, Mr. Speaker, are not policy-based. They're one by one. That's not how we want to do this going forward. We want this to be not only policy-based but actually in regulations, to provide guidance to everyone, to make them more public, and to make it more clear exactly what's at stake.

Mr. Speaker, that lengthy detailed background piece of work was not included initially. It was clear from the participants that they wanted to see it, that they were prepared to go through it, and that's why it was released after. And there's certainly since that time been now almost two months of opportunity for folks to respond back and to speak to the details therein.

As for fanfare, Mr. Speaker, it seems to me there's been a lot of mention and a lot of opportunity for people to be aware of the work of the socio-economic review. I am not -- I'm certain and confident that those interested have had an opportunity to make their interests known. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, before we continue, two-part questions are acceptable but maybe not four or five. Just for the future. Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, at this point overall public awareness and opportunity for engagement with ITI broadly, and at different stages of the development of the Mineral Resources Act and its regulations, started back in 2017, back with the development of the Mineral Resources Act, back with understanding what the public's general desire and wishes were for that piece of legislation. There was a fulsome consultative process at that time. None of that is lost. All of that has filtered back now into the process of developing the regulations. And in the regulation process, where it's into the weeds and into the specifics, there have been invitational opportunities and targeted opportunities with public reporting in the usual fashion. There's the open portal websites where people can provide their information. And there have been these opportunities for the targeted forums for those wishing for more specific opportunity. There's actually been two meetings with Alternatives North. I had the opportunity to sit with them as well as the department sat down with them thereafter. And now, Mr. Speaker, we're trying desperately to get to a point, Mr. Speaker, where some decisions can get made and drafting can get done so that this work can actually get underway and be delivered upon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final short supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.