Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for her passion today. I'm worried, though, that a lot of time and effort is going to go into this Government Renewal Initiative and it will not deliver the results we need to have our government going off a fiscal cliff. I think that's being driven by overspending on large infrastructure projects. We need to make some tough decisions and choices now because we can't possibly accomplish all the items in Cabinet's mandate. What assurance can the Minister give me today that the results of the Government Renewal Initiative are going to be...

I want to thank the Minister for the Minister's statement in response to my question. Look, I want to be generous here. The Minister has shared information with us as Regular MLAs. My questions here today are to try to get this out into the public because nobody really knows what is going on. Can the Minister tell us: She just mentioned that Finance and I believe Education, Culture and Employment are the first two departments that are going to be up for review. Is there a full schedule that she could provide to, perhaps, table in the House so that the public and our workforce knows what's...

Merci, Monsieur le President. On October 30th, the Minister of Finance announced something called the Government Renewal Initiative, and she discussed it again today in the context of the budget. The Minister said, "We are going to use the current climate of recovery and renewal as an opportunity to reimagine how we obtain, manage, and control those financial resources."

The Minister painted a rather grim picture of our finances due to the significant capital spending, which has driven up our short-term debt. The Government Renewal Initiative is supposed to lead to what she calls "value-driven...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I am not sure it was really an answer. I mentioned that most of the financial security held by this government from environmental management and reclamation obligations are in the form of surety bonds backed by insurance companies rather than safer, irrevocable letters of credit issued by Canadian chartered banks. Can the Premier tell us whether this government used the sale of the property and our right to consent or not to the assignment of the water licence, land-use permits, and environmental agreement to convert these...

I want to thank the Minister for that. Of course, I could never get a fully consolidated list of outstanding amounts owed to this government for taxes, royalties, fees, or any other liabilities or accounts receivable from the Ekati Mine. I need to ensure that these issues are part of our diligent review of this major asset transfer. Can the Minister or the Premier commit to finally providing consolidated lists, in confidence if necessary, with details on how each category was treated as part of the sale of the property?

Merci, Monsieur le President. The ongoing saga of creditor protection for the owners of the Ekati Mine seems to have drawn to a close last Friday without so much as a peep from our government. On that date, the mine appears to have been sold to a group of lenders who will own and operate the mine. That's good news. The new owners are called Arctic Canadian Diamond Company Limited, or ACDC.

I could never get a consolidated list of all of the outstanding amounts owed to this government at any point during the proceeding despite repeated requests. I was given partial lists, told that some of the...

I want to thank the Minister for that. Of course, I have both lists in front of me, and there are a lot of things that are not on the list, which she is not going to disclose because she doesn't think we can, because we're country bumpkins or something on this side of the House, but merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for repeating all of that. Although this government was a creditor for the Ekati Mine during the proceeding, many businesses and even the union pension fund were in shortfall positions. Can the Premier tell us whether these NWT businesses and the union will...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Premier on the sale of the Ekati Mine and whether Cabinet protected the public interest. Can the Premier tell us whether GNWT has agreed to any concessions, debt write-offs, or weakened financial security as part of the sale of the Ekati Mine and assignment of environmental approvals or agreements? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I move this committee recommends that the rules of the Legislative Assembly authorize the Speaker to allow a Member to attend all or a part of a session remotely when that Member is unable to travel due to a state of emergency being declared in the Member's home community, the Member is under an order of the Chief Public Health Officer prohibiting travel, or the Speaker believes travel would put the Member's health or safety at risk. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I recognize that I'm one of the few things that is standing in the way of a much-needed break for us all, so I'm going to try to keep my remarks pretty short here. There was a very significant announcement by the Minister of Finance in the House yesterday. It's largely gone unnoticed by the public and media. That was some changes that the Minister agreed to make moving forward as a result of our discussions around the 2021-2022 capital budget. There was $15 million added to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation budget over three years to help leverage the...