Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following five documents entitled "2017-2018 Water Stewardship Strategy Progress Review Summary," "NWT Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program, 2017-2018 Annual Report and 2017-2018 Project Results," pursuant to section 13(1) of the Natural Resources Conservation Trust Act, "The Natural Resources Conservation Trust Fund Financial Statements for the year ended March 31, 2017," and, pursuant to sections 16(2) and 23(3) of the Species At Risk Act, "Conference of Management Authorities Species At Risk Annual Report 2017-2018," and "Northwest...

As part of our waste resource management strategy, we had a number of conversations across the Northwest Territories. We had a lot of regional meetings, and we had some online questionnaires that people could fill out. We have produced a "what we heard" document. The reason I bring that up is a number of the items that the Member is talking about, some of the priority from the respondents was they would like to see bulky waste packaging and tires, appliances, vehicles, and that removed from their landfill. We continue to work with whoever we need to work with. We have to work with industry if...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very pleased to welcome my wife, Judy, to the gallery and to the Assembly, and she's also a constituent of Inuvik Boot Lake. Speaking of constituents, I would like to recognize Donna Rogers who is a constituent of Inuvik Twin Lakes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I stated earlier, we'll take any opportunity to work with who we need to work with to try to take advantage of some of the empty backhauls that are going out. I can commit to them, and I'm sure our folks in the region are working with them. Again, we have the discussion paper that we released. We have a draft implementation plan that we're looking at presenting to Cabinet very shortly, here. Then we will seek further input into the implementation plan.

So a lot of work has gone into this. We had a number of respondents to our questionnaire. We had 109 people, I think, show up in a lot of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in September and October of this year, ENR worked with two community governments and their contractor to identify and consolidate all their hazardous waste in preparation for transportation on the Mackenzie Valley winter road to an approved disposable facility. The following hazardous materials were a part of this package. There were a number of pallets of used oil, glycol, and this was from a couple communities, vehicle batteries, fuel, contaminated water. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we are monitoring what the other jurisdictions across the country are doing. We will continue to do that. As I said before, we haven't signed the MOU yet. We are still working with Ottawa, but again, I go back to the point that Ottawa is going to implement this regardless what the other jurisdictions are doing. They will implement. They will have their fight with the other jurisdictions. I just want to be sure that our territory is ready, that when the date comes to implement carbon pricing, we are ready for it, and if there are any benefits to be gained from it while mitigating...

Mr. Speaker, the federal government, that was their original intent, was to try to curb people's behaviour so not to contribute to climate change. They came up with the carbon price tax.

We, in turn, had to make some adjustments to try and minimize the impact that it was going to have on the people of Northwest Territories. The intent was to curb people's behaviours so that there's less greenhouse gas emission, but I think even the federal government realizes that, in the Northwest Territories, and we used the word 'uniqueness' a number of times, our situation is a little different. We have had...

Mr. Speaker, as much as I agree with the Member on the importance of employment in the small communities and I think, through a number of the different programs that the Government of the Northwest Territories offers as part of infrastructure goes, I think we have seen an example through the small community employment fund through the rural and remote committee, there was someone there that was allocated for some employment opportunities and in small communities, but I don't believe that's a particular one that was factored in with the prioritizing of projects. I don't even know if it should...

There is a 20year capital plan that most departments have. There is an overall 20year capital plan, and then there is a fiveyear capital plan. There are a number of projects that could get on these plans, but sometimes the plans change. If they find that there is another facility or a building that is unsafe for the occupants, then that might take priority over one that is on the fiveyear capital plan. That may get pushed back a bit. I think we all, that have been around in this building for a while, have seen that, where plans get pushed back a bit because of other circumstances.

That would be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to update Members on our fiscal and economic situation and some of our ongoing challenges.

When I presented the 2018-2019 budget in February, I noted the progress we had made towards our fiscal strategy but also described our revenue challenges, with total revenue for 2018-2019 expected to be about $120 million less than 2016-2017 revenues. This decline in revenue over a two-year period has presented an enormous challenge for our government. We have met that challenge through careful management of expenditure growth, while...