Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have been doing a lot of work on the NWT side as to how we want to roll this out, and once the legislation passes, we will be able to have a product that is made in the NWT. As far as the mail order, I believe that they are going to be regulated by the federal government, but I will confirm that and have a discussion with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'll answer plainly: the tax may affect those communities that have higher real estate costs than other communities across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I disagree with the Member. This is not a tax grab or a cash grab. This is something that we're putting into place. My understanding is a potential revenue from this would be about $3 million. My understanding is that we would retain all of it.

Conversations such as the one we're having right now are one way to promote knowledge-based economy and to let people out there know that there are pots of money within the territorial government to come up with some initiatives like the ones the Member spoke of. I'm sure they received some assistance of some sort from the Government of Northwest Territories. Then recognizing that, going forward, anyone can put a proposal together and submit it to the Government of Northwest Territories. When we speak of the successes of some of the proposals and initiatives that have come forward, I'm sure...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have committed in our renewed mandate to developing a knowledge economy.

First of all, we are going to focus on advancing access to knowledge in our agricultural sector, expanding our geoscience information and implementation of the NTGS Strategic Plan, and advancing public understanding of resource development in the NWT.

The examples that the Member gave, I think, are very good examples of an initiative going forward that would work to our knowledge-based economy, and as we've heard a number of times in the past talking about with the benefits of the...

Well, as I said, it is federal law that they are working on. If they decide that it is unable to be done by the time that they have specified, then we would just have to change direction and just continue to do the work that we can to sure that we are ready for implementation once the federal government does legalize cannabis.

The Minister is not more open. The Minister is always open to having a discussion with the stakeholders and Regular Members because this is an issue that we need to make sure we get the work done and get it done properly. The fact that the date has been pushed back, as we kind of anticipated, we will continue to do our work, have the discussions with the appropriate stakeholders, and then, when the federal government does decide to roll this out, I will assure the Members, the public, and the Northwest Territories that the Government of the Northwest Territories will be ready. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 50-18(3): Impact of Collapse of Carillion on Stanton Renewable Project"; and, further to my Return to Written Question 4-18(3), a document entitled "Stanton Territorial Hospital Project Cash Flow." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As part of the review and in my conversation that I will have with the department, I want to ensure that the government gets value for money. If it means a different type of reporting, then that is something that I would commit to having a discussion with my officials about because, at the end of the day, I want to ensure that the government gets value money and there are also opportunities for a lot of smaller businesses to take advantage of some of the sole-source contracts that we have.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. We did raise the limits. It has been well received by a lot of businesses across the NWT. Of course, there are always concerns with a lot of the initiatives that we take on. I have committed the Department of Finance to review the impact of the increase. The procurement committee is just developing the terms of reference and are looking at getting an independent contractor to review the policy.