Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber.

Would the Minister please introduce her witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have on my left Bill MacKay, the deputy minister of finance. And on my right, Tram Do, the director of shared corporate service.

Thank you. The committee has agreed to forego general comments on the Department of Finance. Does committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabling of documents?

Agreed? Thank you. Committee, we will now defer the department summary and review the estimates by activity summary beginning with the directorate starting on page 162, information item on page 165. Are there any questions?

No further questions, please turn to page 163.

Finance, directorate, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $100,735,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to human resources beginning on page 166 with information items on page 168. Are there any questions from Members?

No further questions, please turn to page 167. Finance, human resources, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $23,651,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Moving on to management board secretariat beginning on page 169, information items on page 173. Are there any questions?

Seeing none. Okay, my eyes are -- okay, I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.

Oh no, thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Range Lake, sorry. Range Lake.

There's a lot of lakes over here. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is -- I'd like to talk about the carbon tax offsets, the cost of living, the COLO, the cost of living tax credit.

The last budget process, there was a commitment to revenue neutral carbon pricing regime. We do not see detailed itemization on how this revenue's reallocated to be revenue neutral which is something that -- was a commitment last time. Why wasn't it -- why can't we find that in the main estimates, a revenue neutral carbon tax? Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, appreciate the question. It won't necessarily show up as a line item here. The list of things that are being done within the GNWT right now to support carbon neutrality and environmental and climate change related initiatives are across departments, and so they wouldn't just show up right directly underneath this line item, but I can give some examples thereof.

We do have, for example, the impact -- accumulative impact monitoring that comes in around $3 million. Alternative and renewable energy programs and alternative technologies program as in and around just over nearing $300,000. Arctic Energy Alliance, 1.4. The offsets that go towards the Inuvik wind and battery program which was $38 million. And another long list of items, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure -- happy to read it here or if the Member would prefer, we could certainly find a better way to do that. Consider, perhaps, either a letter to committee or some other fashion, but there's a long list of things that do total up -- more than total up the amount of income that we do receive from the carbon tax. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.

Thank you. I think the carbon tax report would probably be the best place for it. The issue was in that report previously, there's just been a line item for general revenue or a large -- anything that's not spoken for through the rebate programs is just revenue to the GNWT and then the argument is, well, the GNWT does lots of stuff that's related to climate so that's how we're doing. So it's, you know, dollar for dollar accounting of how it goes. I think the report would be the best place to do that. Can the Minister make that commitment? Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I believe we certainly could make -- add a page to the report that comes out detailing the initiatives and different programs that are being spent in here. I anticipate that should be not a problem. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The carbon tax offsets have doubled in these estimates from the revised estimates. Can the Minister explain why that is. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The increase, Mr. Chair, is due firstly because the carbon tax rates are going up. There was an increase of $15 per ton. And there was also, of course, the change in terms of the impact of having heating fuel removed which saw a significant change year over year. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Range Lake.

Thank you. Shouldn't that make it go down, Mr. Chair? Thank you.