Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 2018 fire season was well below average for the Northwest Territories. A total of 56 fires were reported, affecting 13,222 hectares. In comparison, there were 249 fires and just over 860,000 hectares burned in 2017. The 25-year average is 231 fires and about 686,000 hectares burned each fire season.

As a government, it is important for us to be able to provide assistance to other Canadian jurisdictions, as many of them have helped us during previous wildland fire seasons. The relatively inactive fire season allowed Northwest Territories personnel and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 26, Statistics Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 28, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2018-2019, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When we released our planned approach in July of 2018, we also released the results of the engagement process. A lot of the background material is available on the Department of Finance website. We did share what the analysis of the federal backstop would be, and we know that it was going to cost residents of the Northwest Territories a lot more had we just gone and used their backstop.

It is noteworthy that the federal approach to offset in other provinces where the federal backstop is being used is quite similar to what we announced in July. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 27, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2018-2019, be read for the third time, and Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The proposed approach for us is to rebate for fuel use, for heating and electricity generation, for the large emitters. 75 percent will be rebated back to them. The other 25 percent will be put into a trust that they can use to make investments into reducing the greenhouse gas emissions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my right, I have Dr. Joe Dragon, deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources. To my left, I have the well-dressed Dennis Marchiori, director of Corporate Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the honourable Wally Schumann will be absent from the House for the remainder of this week to attend both the federal-provincial-territorial Ministers of internal trade and the federal-provincial-territorial Ministers of innovation and economic meetings in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I did state before one of the first things that I did to try to monitor this is to put the departments on notice, my colleagues on notice, that I will be monitoring this. I'm sure, as we gather the information, we'll have a fairly good indication of why some of the projects are late. Maybe the specifications haven't been done. It could be a number of different reasons. I can't sit here and start to speculate on what some of those reasons are.

I have made a commitment that we would monitor this a lot closer to make sure that the money that's been allocated...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in all fairness to some of the previous speakers that had some concerns with carry-overs, I think I may as well address that issue right now. The Members are correct. There is a significant amount of carry-overs. Last year, I believe it was a little over $100 million in carry-overs. It could be for different reasons. Projects could be in the planning stages; the money is appropriated for a particular project. It could be in the planning stages. Contracts could not be let; contracts could just be assigned. That could be some of the reasons for the carry-overs.

I...