Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left, I have Dr. Erin Kelly, assistant deputy minister of Environment and Climate Change. To my right, I have Ms. Cherie Jarock, legislative counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here to introduce Bill 39, the Environmental Rights Act. This bill takes steps to modernize and broaden the existing Environmental Rights Act in the Northwest Territories. The bill provides broader rights to:

request an investigation, including clearer timelines and responsibilities of the Minister;

prosecute an offence;

bring forward an action; and

protect employees who have engaged in processes under the Environmental Rights Act.

The bill also requires Executive Council to prepare a statement of environmental values and ensure that departments and select public bodies...

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.

Mr. Speaker, challenges with the functionality of the Fur Harvest Management System has resulted in issues with the overall program administration, including manually calculating the accurate grubstake payments and reconciling auction payments for the trappers. We take these issues very seriously, and we are working to address them in a timely manner. ENR is actually working with Finance to make changes to the Fur Harvest Management System. ENR has made the first round of changes, and a working group has been established to resolve major issues by the fall of 2019. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I never thought of that, but I know of a community that does fly a lot of their fuel in, and I don't think you'd want to be paying the prices they pay, and their distance is not as far as the Member's riding. So I have seen that, and that is a creative way of looking at it, but the airline would still have to recover some of their costs, and I do know of a community in Northern Yukon that pays an extremely high cost for their gasoline. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The reason we are here having this discussion on the carbon pricing and our approach to carbon pricing which would help mitigate the impact on people in the Northwest Territories is because we have already asked the federal government to give us an exemption. Because we are here, you know what their answer was. They were bent on implementing carbon pricing; it does not matter which part of the country you lived in. So the initial discussion we had with the federal government is we just want to be exempt, and, of course, their answer was no. They said, "You guys go back...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any motor fuel that is burned will be subject to carbon tax. For those who are hauling it, if they have a garage that relies on heating fuel to keep their garage heated, then that part of it is going to be rebated at the pump. Any motor fuel that they use to haul is going to be subject to carbon tax. Then the cost of living offset, which we were discussing earlier, is a way to help residents try to mitigate some of the impact of those costs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, I would assume that it would be, but I am also confident that this Legislative Assembly would support an initiative that we feel is better for the people of the Northwest Territories than the alternate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.