Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks to the Minister for that. I had understood that there were some meetings that were to take place in the fall, or maybe it was in January, with the Tlicho and some other Indigenous governments and communities to start to identify specific areas for habitat protection, critical habitat. Look, there is nothing else we can do on the harvest side, quite frankly. I do appreciate the work of the Minister and what he did in the media today, so maybe we can do some more enforcement stuff there. There's not much we can do with the harvesters to deal with that anymore. We...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I recognize there's a pandemic going on, but I asked these questions a year ago because we wanted to try to increase the CHAP funding at that point. Has this review been delayed? When is the Minister going to be in a position where he can share a copy of the evaluation with standing committee? Thanks, Madam Chair.

That's great to hear. I hope this is not going to be another resource giveaway, but the Minister sort of prefaced my next question: Section 30.3 of the Petroleum Resources Act says that a significant discovery licence "may contain any other terms and conditions as may be agreed on by the Minister and the interest owner of the significant discovery licence." It's not clear whether that means the Minister can impose work requirements or annual fees that could even rise over time or whether Husky Energy has a veto. Can the Minister tell us whether it is her intention to pose any terms and...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. I'll just go back and ask one other question. The $430,000 for the barren-ground caribou surveys, does that, then, have to be brought forward through a supplementary? Thank you.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Just in case anybody gets the wrong idea here, I am not saying that staff are not capable of doing the work. I know that they work very, very hard, and we saw that in the 18th Assembly. I just don't want to kill them with the work like we almost did with what we put onto them at the end of the 18th Assembly.

On Friday of last week, I can't even remember what day it is anymore, we reviewed the ITI budget, and they had over half a million dollars for a new unit that they had created for implementation of the Mineral Resources Act alone. It was $360,000 if they could contract...

Merci, Monsieur le President. The former Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment issued 10 significant discovery licences for oil and gas during the last Assembly. This was a huge post-devolution resource giveaway. The area covered by these licences is almost 2,200 square kilometres, an area about 40 percent the size of Prince Edward Island. Our government will get no revenues, no taxes, no employment, and no benefits from these areas that are now tied up virtually forever.

Significant discovery licences arose in the federal legislation that we inherited for petroleum resources. They allow...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. I just want to be crystal clear. The money can be carried over from last year to this year to allow for the survey work to be done? You don't have to cut internally, look for unused funds in other parts of ENR, or even within wildlife and fish to do the work? I just want to be really clear about that. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. If we can start on page 73. When I look down the program detail line for 2021-2022, all of those items are actually reduction from the previous year except for policy, legislation, and communications. Can someone tell me what's going on here? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Let's talk about caribou. The barren-ground caribou surveys were supposed to happen last year. They didn't because of COVID. What's happening this summer? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair, and you're welcome to the Speaker for asking these questions. I have one more, if I could. There is an increase of the director, Human Rights Commission line of about $200,000, and I'd like to get an explanation there. Thanks, Madam Chair.