Kevin O'Reilly

Yes, I have a couple questions I'd like to pursue here. I see that wildfire risk management plans, that there was $275,000 spent last year and only 75 budgeted for this year. So where did the extra money come from to do the plans last year and why are we not continuing that level of funding forward to help protect communities? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's good to hear. And we now have a legislative development protocol with the intergovernmental council, and there's provision for other Indigenous governments who didn't sign on to the devo agreement to be part of that process. So there's a lot of work that has to be done and perhaps some new funding that's provided to the Indigenous governments. There's some public engagement that needs to be carried out, some policy work. Can the Minister tell me if there's any additional resources found in this year's budget to assist with that work? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So can we get any details on what the plan B is? Is that something that the Minister can share with Standing Committee and maybe even the public? Because plan A from the last Assembly's not going do it. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Committee would like to consider Tabled Document 56119(2) Main Estimates 20222023 and Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So I just want to start by saying that although I ask a lot of tough questions of this department, I do appreciate the work that the staff do, and I know that they're always doing their best.

But I do have some questions around climate change and the conservation area planning and management over a longer period of time. The Nature Fund protected areas grants and contributions is going down, down on page 81. It's about, I don't know, almost $300,000 less this year than last year. When I look at conservation planning and implementation program detail on page 80, it's about $1...

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that. I'm not asking him to splash it all across the newspapers, but the only information I've got from this Minister, from this government, is what I get in the House about this issue. That is totally unacceptable.

What I want from this Minister is to start sharing what they're doing behind closed doors with this side of the House. So as the "polluter pays principle" says, you know, the Northwest Territories should not have to spend our resources to understand what the impacts may be from the tar sands. Can the Minister tell us what...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think I may have seen a document, but can the Minister commit to share it with standing committee and report regularly on progress on that initiative? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that. I'm not sure he actually answered my question. So I'll try it a different way here.

So one of the most important pieces of work that's going to be done is considering any potential discharges and the impacts of the tar sands tailings, and that usually involves modeling of contaminants downstream. So can the Minister tell us if any of this modeling work has been done and whether it includes the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Yeah, okay, thanks for that. Okay, for the tailings cover, the dust suppressant, stuff starts to dry out in May. Do we actually have the suppressant in stock, so to speak, and is it ready to be sprayed on or whatever in May? Because that's when the stuff starts to blow around, so. That's something we've seen from Giant Mine for years and the same out there so do we have the stuff ready to go? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. Lots of issues here were raised at the recent hydrogen workshop, including the need to pose the right research questions, ensure stakeholder engagement, do life cycle analysis of options, and looking at bridging technologies.

Can the Minister commit to developing a Northwest Territories hydrogen strategy that will examine these issues and more? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.