Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been speaking about the elements of the red alert for two years. First and foremost, on the moratorium, and I have to correct the Member. He said he had to correct me in the media because I made erroneous statements. I think he made an erroneous statement about the moratorium. It's not a five year moratorium. It's an indefinite moratorium and to new offshore oil and gas licences.

So first and foremost about the moratorium, I've been speaking for over a year. The one-year anniversary for the moratorium is December 21st and it has gained no traction from southern or...

We work with every government, national government, especially ones that sign on to devolution. We have memoranda of understanding. We meet on a regular, formal government-to-government basis on a negotiation of self-government, on the delivery of programs and services. We have negotiated core operating principles. Not all Aboriginal governments want to sit at the table, but for the ones that are prepared to negotiate tri-laterally, we ensure that we have a consistency of service and we recognize through modelling that one of the problems with self-government or land claims is they're not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure where the federal MLA is getting his information from, but most of it seems to be manufactured by the media, and I don't see any areas where we have a problem with reconciliation. If anything, we are the leading edge of negotiations of self-government in Canada.

We have 15 negotiating tables, and we have negotiated self-government agreements with the Tlicho and the Deline, and those have been negotiated with the involvement of the federal Government of Canada, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and the Aboriginal government. I think what the...

As soon as our government and our officials have been able to review the legislative agenda and as soon as we can determine the timelines and the proposed schedules, we would develop a critical path. I expect that we will be able to meet with Caucus at that point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

First of all, I would review our legislative agenda. I would review every proposal. I would review every timeline, and I would review the resources that we have available, and we would review that with Caucus.

Historically, the final two years of an Assembly are often the heaviest when it comes to a government's legislative agenda. The 17th Assembly had a very large number of financial bills compared to previous Assemblies, as well as ten devolution-related bills making comparison to the 18th Assembly difficult. I believe that we are on track to deliver on a fulsome and ambitious legislative agenda for the 18th Legislative Assembly. I am prepared to review it and to see what will be required to make sure that we can complete our fulsome and ambitious legislative agenda. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Legislation can take a long time to develop, and we have a number of very large initiatives under way to bring forward in the latter two years of this Assembly. The revised mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories identifies 14 larger pieces of legislation for introduction in the 18th Legislative Assembly that we have been working very hard on.

Cabinet has directed the Public Utilities Board to consider the following principles when assessing net metering rates: costs should be transparent; costs should be borne by the customers; government customers should not be eligible for net metering; implementation criteria should provide certainty of benefits; and the capacity for individual systems taking part in net metering should be no greater than 15 kilowatts to ensure all residents and businesses should be ensured an opportunity to participate in the program. We will follow convention as per the protocol agreement to make sure that all...

It is very clear to me. The Public Utilities Board is an independent regulator, but the Public Utilities Board funding is voted on by the Legislative Assembly, through the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs' main estimates. The commitment that the Member is referring to, Commitment 1.4.6 on net metering, falls to the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.

With regards to who is leading the overall coordination of energy policy-making for the Government of the Northwest Territories, this is a corporate responsibility led by Cabinet with input from Regular Members, Aboriginal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to recognize my wife Judy in the gallery joining us for our session today. Welcome.