Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I appreciate the Minister getting her witnesses here.

So this is the largest ever capital budget for this government, and I'm just wondering how much of it is actually unspent projects, unspent capital works from the previous year. So, you know, are there carryovers, or there's this new term that the department seems to be using, "future cash flow.” How much of it is unspent funds from last year or previous years beyond that. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Okay, thanks. So I'm trying to figure this out. So the feds are putting $5 million $14 million into this; we're putting five or maybe six at least it seems to show here. Northwestel is putting an unknown amount in, and we don't know have what the total cost of the project is. I'm just trying to reconcile all this. Does anybody know what the total cost of this project is. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Committee would like to consider Tabled Document 437-19(2): Capital Estimates 2022-2023. General comments Finance, Industry, Tourism and Investment, and Infrastructure. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks. Maybe it's my total ignorance, then, about the Mackenzie Valley fibre link. I'd understood that there's some kind of P3 arrangement where Northwestel owns it and we're somehow or whether they were contracted to just build it, but I'd understood that we're somehow working with those guys to actually lease it out somehow or pay some sort of some sort of an arrangement, but we don't actually own the thing until 30 or 35 years or something down the road.

If we're paying $19 million for this 140 kilometer fibre link, why don't we own it outright and operate it ourselves rather than give it...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Clearly, people in Jean Marie River, particularly the Elders, like to be close to the rivers. That brings some risk with more extreme events which will increase with the climate crisis.

Can the Minister tell us whether there have been any discussions or plans to relocate or move some or all of the community of Jean Marie River, and what support is our government giving. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Thanks for that commitment because I've been asking for that since the start of this Assembly, and I was raising it as an issue in the last Assembly about the need for some kind of a roadmap for how all of this was going to work. I haven't seen anything. And I pay pretty close attention to this, as the Minister well knows. There has been no discussion of claim staking so far during the life of this Assembly in any venue that I've ever been engaged in or involved in. So I really do encourage that to start to take place in parallel with the development of this system.

I don't...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that response.

The community of Jean Marie River was particularly hard hit by flooding as we all know. Can the Minister tell us if and when the water treatment plant was put back into operation and what arrangements were made for clean water for the community before that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I'm not going to deal with where this is going. I'll deal with that when it comes to a sup.

What are we getting here for this? The reason why I'm raising this is in the last Assembly, we dealt with a lot of devolution legislation that we inherited. There was a lot of public registries set up. I know I've been critical of Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the past for their protected areas registry, the lack of information, the lack of rigor to it. But here we are spending $3.7 million on something for mining. And the other departments don't seem to...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Tough act to follow there.

On the theme of small communities, this past summer our family took a trip to Sambaa Deh Falls Territorial Park, one of the NWT's hidden gems. While we were there, we took the opportunity to visit Jean Marie River on August 11th to see some of the spring flood damage firsthand. I had contacted the Chief ahead of the visit but unfortunately he had some other meetings that took him outside of the community. I was able to briefly meet with the senior administrative officer and drove around the community.

The community administrative offices...

Thanks, Madam Chair. On page 28, the mineral administration and registry system, can someone tell me what the total cost of that is going to be, or ballpark figure. Thanks, Madam Chair.