Bob Bromley

That’s fine for a legal person to say, Madam Chair, but we’re talking here in this House about what’s right and what’s wrong, I think. How will that be handled if there’s an improper contaminant being released legally, that would, I assume in some court of appeal I could argue is a real thing and that’s what’s meant to be dealt with by the Environmental Rights Act. By now negating the Environmental Rights Act, you’re leaving our public hanging when injustices are, in fact, happening. How do we deal with that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise at the earliest opportunity after reviewing unedited Hansard from yesterday to raise a point of order against Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Miltenberger said to me in my proposed amendment to a motion, and I quote from yesterday’s unedited Hansard, page 50: “…if it’s not outright duplicitous, it’s friggin’ double standard. And I withdraw the friggin’.”

Mr. Speaker, House Rule 23 states it’s against orders of the House, under (i), to impute false or hidden motives to another Member; under (j), charges another Member with uttering a deliberate falsehood; and, finally, (k)...

I certainly wouldn’t disagree with that intent. There seems to be some other interpretation of this. Maybe I can just ask. Is there any granting of immunity to the GNWT here for regulations good or bad? Maybe a response to both of those. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, I do see that. I’m just wondering if I can have a plain language interpretation of what that actually means. I know that I’m speaking to a legal professional here. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, thanks for that response. I think it was Section 19 we were talking about. He said 17, but I’m sure he meant 19. In fact, the point I’m raising is that that’s not good enough. They should be required to hold public hearings on any matter. Again, I’m not surprised at mirroring federal legislation but I’m trying to raise a point that we can talk about later, but that’s my view on that.

Section 27 allows the Minister to set up an oil and gas committee under his or her direction. Five-members-only criteria for appointment seems to be two members have to know something about oil and gas...

Thank you. I note that Bills 13, 16 and 17 are not mirror legislation. So I’m wondering why we’re only seeing these bills now. Could they not have gone through some form of public review and consultation?

Thank you. I suppose most stuff is, but we’re looking for transparency here, so again, I hope we work towards that.

Section 10(4) allows for deposits for liability related to loss damage, et cetera. Again, in reference to Mr. Fulford’s earlier comment, deposits are not mandatory. This is, again, unfortunate. I would just like to give the Premier an opportunity to say I’m wrong here and, in fact, somewhere in the act it is made mandatory. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks to Mr. Fulford. That’s good information to have and I appreciate that. I’ll maybe just postpone any further discussion on that aspect. I believe that’s all I had. Yes, that’s it. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, just about there. I just wanted to express appreciation for the possibility of an invite there. I don’t recall his previous commitment, so I again appreciate him repeating it here.

My last question is: Given that there are many discussions that will influence decision-making on how we manage our public land and resources, is there any reason why we can’t develop regulations or rules? Perhaps the Premier could bring this up as a possible rule that requires the publication of minutes, decisions, costs, that sort of thing, accountability from these meetings so that the public...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Hopefully, these will be electronically available and we won’t have to worry about that.

Finally, I don’t see any provisions for participant funding or for applicants to cover some or all of the costs of those who wish to intervene such as is the case, for example, with the Public Utilities Board, and I suspect I could tell myself the answer: We’re mirroring legislation. I guess that’s all the questions I have. I just hope that that’s all we’re mirroring. The evidence is quite to the contrary of that, unfortunately, that we’re also mirroring a lack of transparency and...