Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 43, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the second time. This bill amends the Income Tax Act to make changes to non-refundable tax claimed by multi-jurisdictional individual tax filers, including changes that restrict the Northwest Territories' pension credit to the Northwest Territories' residents, and changes that allow co-pension and dividend credits to be claimed by Northwest Territories residents with business income earned outside the territories. This bill also amends the Income...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 42, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products Tax Act, be read for the second time.

The bill amends the Petroleum Products Tax Act to impose a carbon tax on petroleum products and natural gas. It makes the amendments necessary for collection and administration of this new tax to be handled in the same manner as the current fuel tax. Purchasers are required to pay the tax, and vendors and collectors are required to remit the tax to the Government of the Northwest Territories. The bill allows the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT, we fully support our employees in their efforts to access support services, so they can safely address the broad spectrum of mental wellness issues related to the impacts of residential school, but by doing so, we are bound by the lead provisions in our collective agreement. For example, for employees accessing counselling services in Yellowknife, they may access up to two hours of casual leave with pay to attend the counselling session. When accessing a recurring counselling session, there is a possibility of accessing up to a maximum of a one day of casual...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 43, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I believe we are always monitoring the quality of the water, especially with some of the projects that are going on in the southern jurisdictions. We have the Mackenzie data stream project, and I believe we have monitoring stations in almost 22 communities, as far as the work of the Northwest Territories. I would encourage Members to go on I believe there is a website, the Mackenzie data stream website. We have a lot of monitoring stations on the Mackenzie, down the valley. As they propose to do some work in the southern jurisdictions, I think the importance of the water monitoring on our part...

The work of the board is to provide a state of aquatic environment report every five years, and they get the funding to do that work. My understanding is that the next version of the report is coming out in 2020. I would have to follow up to see if there are yearly reports that are put out. I was on the board's website to see if there was an opportunity to find a yearly update, but I can look at that. The report is due in 2020.

Here in the Northwest Territories, we fully understand and respect the effects that residential schools have had on a number of our people in the Northwest Territories, and we try to work with them. I can commit to the Member that we will reach out, we will work with people, and if the Member or Members have any specific cases where folks are having trouble navigating through the system, I would encourage them to bring that to my attention so we can deal with it in a fair and timely manner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I do take the Member's point and acknowledge that having to apply for medical leave assistance when the costs associated are covered by the federal government in order to access up to three days of leave of absence with pay may be an unnecessary burden to some employees. However, we do have to apply the terms of the collective agreement in providing access to this leave. I have asked my officials to reach out to the unions to discuss whether we could agree to a different process for employees attending counselling sessions through this federally funded program.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a couple of Pages from Inuvik Twin Lakes. We've got Angelina Jerome, who has been here with us all week, as well as Joyce-Rowena Conley. I'd like to thank them and all the Pages in the Assembly for all the work they do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 42, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products Tax Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.