Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I am here to present Bill 60, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act.

This bill addresses amendments to update the Northwest Territories carbon tax rate schedule to meet the revised federal carbon pricing benchmarks from April 1, 2023 to April 1, 2030.

The sole purpose of Bill 60 is to keep the Northwest Territories carbon tax rates in compliance with the federal government's carbon pricing commitments, including not returning the carbon tax revenues into the economy in a way that negates the carbon price signal.

Passage of Bill 60 is a singular choice: Either we keep control of the carbon tax legislation or Canada applies its system. By passing Bill 60 the GNWT retains flexibility to design a made-in-the-North solution that reflects Northern priorities and circumstances. That flexibility allows the GNWT to continue to adapt its rebate programs in response to feedback from the public and from discussions within the Legislative Assembly.

I cannot stress enough the advantage of keeping the Northwest Territories carbon tax system so that we can have the flexibility to collectively make changes on the use of carbon tax revenues. Already, we have improved the Cost of Living Offset design because of the concerns highlighted by Regular Members.

Under the proposed regional Cost of Living Offset, residents who live in higher cost of living areas would receive a higher Cost of Living Offset payment. With our own carbon tax system, we have the flexibility as a Legislative Assembly to further refine the Cost of Living Offset as or when needed.

We have listened to Members' concerns about the implications for community governments and are proposing to provide an annual revenue-sharing grant to community governments in an amount calculated annually at 10 percent of net carbon tax revenues to help in their efforts to adapt to climate change, reduce reliance on fossil fuel, and support overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

We are providing large emitters with an offset that does not run counter to the federal criteria but offers a customized, more flexible treatment of carbon tax for northern mining operations at different times in their lifecycle. This will allow key NWT industry to remain viable and competitive; both by maintaining certainty for existing operations and by ensuring prospective new entrants have some mitigation against otherwise overall higher costs of exploration and development in the North.

We have heard the concerns that the GNWT is not doing anything to support businesses and other organizations. Different businesses face a variety of different impacts and options in relation to fossil fuel use, ranging from those who will see minimal impacts to others who will be impacted and may have an incentive to make significant capital investments in order to change their manner of operating.

Accounting for such variety fairly through some form of publicly funded grant or credit would be very difficult. Instead, we are tying support business by returning carbon tax revenues to residents through the Cost of Living Offset that includes an amount for indirect carbon tax increases; in other words, for the expected increases in costs consumers will see if businesses pass their costs on.

We are also continuing existing GNWT grant programs to help businesses reduce carbon-based fuel consumption. Similarly, non-government organizations pay varying amounts of carbon tax depending on their activities and support to offset the carbon tax would be better addressed through other grant and contribution programs that recognize the overall needs of individual organizations or activities but which are not tied to the carbon tax.

I recognize that Members have also requested to put the enhancements we are proposing for residents in high-cost regions and the revenue sharing for communities into the legislation. In order for that to have been possible, the bill as drafted after the November public hearing would have had to include that as part of its scope. The rules do not permit me to change the substance of the bill to that extent at this stage. However, the proposed regional Cost of Living Offset would be in regulations, and I propose to investigate how to put the revenue sharing for communities element of this revised approach into the regulations rather than policy in order to give greater emphasis on the importance of our consensus-based approach.

I do ask, Madam Chair, that we pass Bill 60 so that we retain both the responsibility and the flexibility to adhere to the federally-imposed carbon pricing system in a way that meets the needs of the Northwest Territories. That concludes my remarks. Thank you, Madam Chair.