Kevin O'Reilly

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.

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

Merci, Monsieur le President. I give notice that on Wednesday, November 24th, 2021, I'll move the following motion: Now therefore I move, second by the Honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that the following Member be appointed to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight, Ms. Jane Weyallon-Armstrong, the Member from Monfwi.

And further that the following Member be appointed to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, Ms. Jane Weyallon-Armstrong, the Member from Monfwi.

And, further, that the following Member be appointed to the Standing Committee on...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that and his passion. Earlier I spoke about the need to face the capitalistic crisis at the NWT Power Corp and its entities head on. So just as the Minister spoke about, we need a real plan in place to -- and we don't have one.

So can the Minister commit to working with his colleagues and the public to develop a real and just transition plan for energy in the NWT? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question's for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, and I'll squeeze in he's also in charge of the climate crisis.

I was thankful we had a delegation at COP26 but we need to move beyond blaming the feds. Can the Minister tell us whether there are any plans to centralize responsibility for the climate crisis including energy projects in the Power Corp and have one Minister responsible for all of this. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.