Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I said earlier, any type of motor fuel is going to be subject to the carbon tax. I have to point out that with the heating fuel and propane, 100 percent rebate comes to about $9.5 million dollars. That is a substantial amount right there. We worked with Canada. We came up with an approach that we thought would be beneficial. Nobody likes a tax. That is the way a lot of people see this.

What people out there need to understand is that there is going to be a carbon tax regardless. If our approach is not used, there will be a federal backstop, which I believe will be not...

No, Mr. Chair. That does not because they would be using motor fuel to haul the heating fuel. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We can't know for sure. Our intention is that, once we deal with Bills 42 and 43, if approved by the Legislative Assembly, then our approach would be implemented on September 1st. Then, we would have some other provisions in the second bill that we are dealing with to deal with the interim payments on the cost of living offset. As far as writ goes, we are under the assumption that we are going to work to try and get our piece of legislation passed so our approach would be implemented on September 1st. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Not at this point. We didn't contemplate that at this point, but there may be opportunities in the future. We don't know; right? We don't know, but at this particular point, the direct response to the Member's question is "not at this point." My interpreter can interpret that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We were able to get a couple of exemptions when we proposed our approach to the federal government. Obviously, a big one would be aviation, because our main mode of transportation up here is aviation. The second one, which I think will be a great benefit to folks in the Northwest Territories is the heating fuel, which is rebated at the point of purchase. I think that is huge, especially for the climate that we live in. Sometimes when you live in the Northwest Territories and you live in bigger centres, you are kind of out of touch with the reality of living in some of the...

Yes, Mr. Chair. Let's not try and confuse things here, and apologies to the Member if he misunderstood. My understanding is that they have spoken to some of the large emitters on the program, not the actual regulations themselves, as he is implying. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here to present Bill 42. This piece of legislation, along with Bill 43, are critical pieces of legislation will allow the Government of the Northwest Territories to meet its carbon pricing commitment under the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change through a carbon tax on all petroleum and natural gas fuels, except aviation fuel.

The purpose of Bill 42 is to amend the Petroleum Products Tax Act to create the carbon tax on petroleum products and natural gas so that the collection and administration of the carbon tax is the same as the current fuel...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, I speak Beaudel English, but I still don't think that I need an interpreter. I said that I would assume that the next government coming in would repeal the legislation if the federal legislation approves our appeal. I said I would assume that they would, based on the effect that it is having on of people in the Northwest Territories. It was an assumption, and they would make that decision. Thank you.

ENR doesn't actually issue these permits. This is done through Environment and Climate Change Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We don't know what the federal backstop would look like for the Northwest Territories. That is a better backstop for the Yukon. Ours may have been different. We don't know that. Realizing that the federal backstop was going to be a little harder for the people of the Northwest Territories to swallow, we wanted to work on an approach that we believe was fairer to the people in the Northwest Territories. I will go to Mr. Stewart to reply to some of the Member's concerns with the numbers. Thank you, Mr. Chair.