The Government of the Northwest Territories made a payment out to residents this morning through the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) as a part of its cost of living offset related to the carbon tax.
These payments are meant to "mitigate the effects" of the NWT carbon tax that was introduced this past September, stated Todd Sasaki, communications officer for the Department of Finance on Thursday.
The carbon tax is meant to discourage the use of fossil fuels, with 100 per cent being returned to individuals and 72 per cent given in rebates to large-scale industries such as mines.
According to Sasaki, residents should have received a mailer this past week to explain the source of the funds.
The money is tax free and is not based on household income but rather an annual amount per household with $104 for adults and $120 for children under 18.
Only one payment is issued per family to whoever filled the most recent income tax claim.
If you're wondering why you might not have received your payment, to be eligible for the payment you have to be an NWT resident for three months or more and have filed an income tax return in 2018.
The next payment will be made in April 2020. Future payments will be made quarterly.
"The GNWT anticipates that it will receive information on the actual total payment from CRA within the next few weeks," said Sasaki.
Before the recent territorial election, MLAs begrudgingly passed legislation for a carbon tax with few happy about it.
Although many then MLAs suggested scrapping it entirely, the federal government mandated that if a province or territory did not introduce their own tax, a federal one would be imposed.
From now until June 2020, the carbon tax rate on gasoline is $0.047 per litre, which will increase to $0.070 on July 1. The tax applies to seven other kinds of fuel in the territory.