Kevin O'Reilly

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. So I don't want to prolong this. I just haven't had any specific identification or identification of a specific authority within here for making regulations about time periods. So I'd like to move the following motion if I may.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that subclause 15.1(1) of Bill 74 be amended by.

(a) adding the following immediately preceding subparagraph (a)(i):

(0.i) any research activities of the Forest Superintendent under paragraph 15(3)(b),

(b) deleting "; and" at the end of the English version of subparagraph (a)(iv) and substituting a semicolon; and.

(c) deleting paragraph (b) and substituting the following:

(b) the total number of inspections and investigations conducted under Part 7;

(c) the total number and total amount of fines and other penalties imposed under Part 8; and

(d) any prescribed...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I'd mentioned, and other committee members have mentioned, that we kind of ran out of time at the end. We had met a couple of times with the departmental staff representatives of the technical working group and in the second meeting, we had a good discussion around some amendments that committee had proposed, and those were kind of taken away and some further work was done by the departmental staff, by the technical working group members, and then those were provided to committee. And committee had been at least under the impression that there was still time...

Yeah, I'm kind of tired too. Thanks, Madam Chair.

So I guess there's one other matter that I think could be clarified here. And the current wording of the section we just discussed, z.01.1 of the regulation making authority really doesn't provide any specific authority for what the timelines might be for this review. And part of that is important because industry wants certainty. You want to know if I submit a plan, how long is it going to take to get it approved before I can go do my stuff. You want to know that. That's a reasonable expectation. So there's no specific authority here to set...

Okay, well that's interesting because it's not required in the legislation. But if they want to continue to do that, that's great. Is that what actually happens now; is there an annual report from the forest superintendent? Is it public? Does it contain data on, say, the number of inspections, the number of enforcement actions? Thank you.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. I spoke a little earlier about I think the bill. It's good that there's now annual reporting well, there was annual reporting. Now it's a little more detailed. But the missing piece here, I think is an actual deadline by which the annual report would have to be filed. And, you know, I have no doubt that the department and the staff are going to do that, but having a deadline sometimes makes sure it actually gets done. And I've been in this in my eight years, there's been at least a couple of instances where there was a requirement for annual reporting and the annual...

Merci, Madam Chair. Yeah, some of the rationale behind this recommendation, the committee went to a number of communities, including Whati, Enterprise, Fort Simpson, and we constantly heard concerns around the size of firebreaks, whether they were adequate. Also concerns around, you know, the adequacy of their fire prevention suppression capacity within communities. Some people in communities wanted to have, you know, a fire crew based in their community kind of on standby. There was concerns around, I guess, the and I don't know all the details, but I guess the training and certification of...

Thanks. Yeah, that's not what the bill says. But if that's what the department wants to do, I'm okay with that.

What I want to do, Madam Chair, if I can move the motion is to change that so that the department the Minister actually has explicit authority to do that, to set up regulations that deal with changing one of these plans once it's already in place. So with that, Madam Chair, can I move a motion?

Yeah, thanks for that. I guess I want to point out that the wording, you know, about research activities is actually not contained in here. We're going to get to that in a minute with a potential motion. But the other list of items here in 15.1, they're all kind of preceded with this language about it's a summary of. And then it's any activities, any forest ecosystem management plans, any monitoring. So, you know, this word "any" and the kind of activity, that's the way that it's presented in the list here. So I just want that clarified, but or I just think it's important to look at the way...