Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that because of our consensus government, I'm in a position to be able to share with the MLAs the correspondence we've written. They know I share their frustration. I can't necessarily publish those letters publicly, but they know I share their frustration. I was at a finance ministers meeting just last week. It is an opportunity not necessarily to say a lot, but I spoke about the carbon tax at my finance ministers meeting, Mr. Speaker. I share their frustration. It is unfortunate that when we went through the public process of engagement back last fall that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, keeping control of the revenues in the Northwest Territories allows us to do exactly what the Member is saying and to look at where once the carbon tax come in, are there costs that we have not accounted for? The Yukon system, I don't want to speak to another government's system, but very briefly, it is based on assets. It is not based on fuel usage. It is not a direct offset. It is not an uncomplicated system, Mr. Speaker. What we are anticipating, and having done calculations of fuel usage over the last few years, we can anticipate what the added costs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to say that with respect to socioeconomic agreement monitoring that does take place, ITI is certainly one of the leads at that table. But this is where you do have ECE and Health and Social Services all involved, all working on this. GNWT does continue to have engagement with the mines to ensure that we understand their employment needs and their timelines to work with them so that there are training availabilities, whether mine training society or through ECE.

I can also say, Mr. Speaker, that because we are involved in that work with respect...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, again, Mr. Speaker, there's been no request on behalf of the GNWT for them to undertake this. It's not been initiated by us. But, again, in reading in full the section from the land and water board, it does make clear that the regulator is asking that Diavik remain open to that.

Now, Mr. Speaker, there has been the reimagine and closure project initiated by the mines. Looking at ways to better utilize all of the infrastructure that they have, looking at ways to give back in a more long and longer, having a legacy type of approach. We're certainly at that table with...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, I can say that refundable tax credits do show up in the public accounts but something that is a non-refundable credit may not be the same. Obviously, we'll certainly do our best to try to make better use of the information sharing provisions. But, I mean, if there are specific elements of tax credits or specific tax provisions that the Member's interested in getting information on, you know, if we can get that, again, I'm happy to try to distill that data as much as possible. This, theoretically, is supposed to help with that data collection from the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do remember that exchange, Madam Chair, and I apologize if we didn't include that on any correspondence to committee. I did just confirm again now with the Department of Finance, as I had at the time, that, indeed, these were changes that were slow in coming from the federal government and so we are simply aligning with the calendar that they had or the timelines that they had put forward on their side. So, again, I ought to have conveyed that to committee earlier; I apologize for not doing so. Thank you.

Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, Mr. Speaker, very timely. This is something that I think a lot of the provinces and territories are becoming very aware of and the importance of. It's a table that provinces and territories sit at together as a symposium because it's an issue that doesn't necessarily get the attention until something goes wrong. So very happy to be able to speak to it now, to give it that kind of attention it deserves in advance so we can try to be more proactive going forward. As I've said, Mr. Speaker, the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the helm of Information...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member must be reading my social media. I had the opportunity to attend an FPT recently where I think my lead word was "interoperability." It is something that, quite frankly, doesn't sound very exciting, not the sort of thing that gets somebody's political blood boiling, but is quite critical to the functioning of the services from the IT perspective and one that we need to do a better job of, Mr. Speaker. There's really no way around that. So I'm pleased to have some attention here. It's been brought to my attention by my officials that lack of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, Madam Chair, I'm happy to try to get that data. And, again, just having briefly a conversation here with the director of fiscal policies, that that may be difficult to determine just what the amount of lost revenues are, are sort of anecdotal. The expectation is that it's not likely a significant value nonetheless and again, I mean, if it's across every type of tax credit, yes, we would need to just go back and look at exactly what kinds of credits we're talking about and what kind of lost revenue we're talking about. But, again, we'll go and have a look and we'll...