Frame Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 165)

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I think the Minister might have got ahead of himself a little bit. What in this bill is going to improve the chances or the ability of the department to open up a second depot in Yellowknife? Thanks.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 165)

Merci, Madam la Presidente. Committee wishes to deal with Committee Report 6219(2) and Bills 74, 78, 83, and 92. Mahsi.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 165)

Thanks, Madam Chair. So can someone point out to me where that's found in the can they give me a specific section? Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 165)

Sorry, Madam Chair, about all of that, I'm confused as much as anybody else.

I move that clause 14.1 of Bill 74 be amended by

(a) renumbering that clause as subclause 14.1(1);

(b) deleting sorry, deleting paragraph (d) and (e) of that renumbered subclause and substituting the following:

(d) any forest harvesting agreement entered into under subsection 25(1);

(e) any extension or variation of the wildfire season declared under subsection 28(2);

(f) all wildfire prevention and preparedness plans submitted to the forest superintendent under subsection 45(2), any such plans resubmitted under...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 165)

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. This is one of the hills I guess I wanted to die on in this Assembly. Maybe it seems like I'm trying to die on every single administrative trivia. That's not the case, but this is one that Members on this side of the House have continually raised, is the need for better public engagement and communications from our Cabinet colleagues. And I think this is really extended to the issue of regulations in particular.

In this Assembly, we did amend and I did get concurrence from the Minister. The Child Daycare Act was amended to require the Minister in that case to provide...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 165)

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister. Of course, I still haven't heard him say the word "crisis" or "emergency" in relation to climate change. But the Auditor General raised the failure of two previous GNWT strategies to reach their greenhouse gas reduction targets, and the current one would also fail without the closure of the Diavik mine. Can the Minister tell us whether GNWT will actually embrace net zero as a target and when we might expect to reach that? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 165)

Yeah, thanks for that, Madam Chair. I appreciate the comments that folks have brought forward. But I think one of the reasons I'm bringing this forward is because the department doesn't appear to have done any public engagement with NWTAC because they asked the committee to do this. So it's one of the reasons why I'm here, is trying to ensure that zoning bylaws are properly recognized and incorporated into forest management decisions. So I think some of that work can and should have been done before we got here.

This is not about having to review every single bylaw that a community government...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 165)

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. So through the work of the committee, with the departmental staff and the technical working group, we did make some progress on the issue of what information should be made public because the bill was totally silent on this which was, really, I guess kind of surprising given that this issue was raised in the last Assembly with regard to Bill 44. It was also raised during the public engagement by the department earlier in this year. It was raised in written submissions to the committee as well. So we did make some progress. What we have here is a relatively short list...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 165)

Yeah, thanks. I appreciate those comments. I guess what I was hoping to hear is probably a little bit more in line with what the standing committee report talks about in terms of things like don't wait until the very end before you carry out your public engagement; find ways to share information while you're working through different parts of a bill or issues. I don't think there's anything that would, you know, prevent I hope, ways of sharing more information as the bill's being developed and starting some of the public engagement earlier on it to get input on specific areas or issues moving...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 165)

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change who seems to be the lead on the climate emergency. I asked this question in the last sitting about whether our government considers climate change a crisis or an emergency. The answer was, from the infrastructure Minister was, quote, We could be dismissed or polarized by individuals who are holding very different views, end of quote. That's why we don't do it.

So following the horrendous fires this summer, can the Minister now tell us whether this government considers climate change an emergency...