Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak. Of course, this has caught me certainly off guard. The point that I was trying to make, Mr. Speaker, in speaking to the point of privilege earlier was that there were actions taken by individuals, at least one individual, outside of this House that I perceived to have infringed upon my privilege in the House to not be intimidated. And that's the context in which I made my remarks. And all I did was simply quote remarks made by the MLA for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh comments that his legal counsel made at a news conference...

Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Member is referring to the sole adjudicator process, the report, and these are not on topic. And he is really, I think, using some abusive, insulting language. I believe this is a breach of the rules, Mr. Speaker, Rule 24. So I would ask that the Member confine his remarks to the point of privilege and not bring in the sole adjudicator and use respectful language. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Member for Thebacha for raising a point of privilege because if she did not I was going to do it Mr. Speaker. Given that this is a very serious matter, I support your decision to allow debate on this point of privilege. I will not deal with any matters that are within the scope and terms of reference for the sole adjudicator appointed to hear a complaint about a breach of conduct by the same Member.

In my view, there have been three breaches of privilege since the House last sat, and I would like to speak to each of these as separate incidents....

Merci, Monsieur le President. Look, I know it's all been -- it's been a very long day for all of us but I think it's really important to go on the public record as supporting this motion and what it's really all about.

So the board of management that governs the Legislative Assembly, the employees and so on, we already have a policy for the building itself so that anybody who enters the building, including contractors now, have to be fully vaccinated.

What this motion is about is about whether MLAs have to be vaccinated to enter into the building for committee work and sittings of the House...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I can hardly wait to work with the Minister in 2022 on all of this. But I spoke of, you know, we got to stop pretending that big petroleum development is ever going to come back to the Northwest Territories. So can the Minister tell us what he is doing to convince his Cabinet colleagues that we cannot and should not promote large scale fossil fuel development and exports in the interest of this planet? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I'd be happy to be part of those conversations when he wants but it's no surprise to this House that I don't support -- I've never supported the climate change approach from the last Cabinet. We need to develop a real and focused climate crisis response; ditch the old approach from the last Cabinet and Assembly.

Can the Minister tell us whether he considers the current state of the climate a crisis; and, if so, can he commit right now to adopt the widely accepted carbon neutral target of net zero by 2050, or even sooner if he...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Like many on this planet, I was very disappointed with the lack of concrete progress and agreement at the recent Conference of the Parties 26 or United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. I was happy that the NWT had a delegation there.

What I've heard so far from our government is that we need federal assistance, more Indigenous representation in our delegation, and work with our circumpolar neighbours. Mr. Speaker, that's just not good enough or going to get us where we should and need to be. I'm going to make it easy for my Cabinet colleagues and lay...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize this is very difficult debate/discussion that we're having. But there is no motion on the floor right now. What we're talking about is a point of privilege raised by the Member for Thebacha. And I believe that Members should keep their remarks to the point of privilege, not a report that hasn't even been tabled in the House. A rule of anticipation, Mr. Speaker, you can't talk about something that hasn't even arrived in the House yet but we expect it. So for a number of reasons, I would suggest that the Member confine his comments to the point of privilege...

point of order.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks very much to the Minister for that forwardlooking work by his department. I'm just wondering, were these payments like onetime payments or are they going to be ongoing in some way? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.