Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I would like to see the government response to the recommendations. I don't think that I have ever seen that. I know that we did get a copy of the five-year review in the last Assembly.

I want to support some of the comments made by my honourable friend from Hay River about some of the kinds of businesses that BDIC actually owns. I have been and visited the Fort McPherson Tent and Canvas shop. I have been to Fort Providence and seen the fur shop there. I have been to Fort Liard and seen the retail store associated with the craft business there. Those are great...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I had asked questions about why BDIC, at least in their 2018-2019 annual report, has an accumulated surplus of $33.445 million, and whether that was available for use, and so on. The Minister told me that I had to wait until the DAF -- I'm sorry, I may not get the acronym right -- was here, so I'd like to ask that question. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess I have one question: what's a DFA? Director of finance and administration or something? Okay, a good guess, I guess, on my part.

I have some questions, though, about the five-year review that was done. Do I wait until we look at that page? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I'm well aware of the $160,000 that's provided to the city. That's the same amount that was given to the Northern Frontier Visitors' Association that eventually resulted in the building going kaput with the lack of support from our government. That was, I think, a major contributing factor in my view. It was in my riding, as well. Is there any money specifically above and beyond the $160,000 in this budget to help with planning and development of a proper visitors' centre in Yellowknife? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. This page, too, is one of my favourites. I'm looking at the 2018-2019 BDIC annual report and I see that they have an accumulated surplus of $33.445 million as of March 31, 2019. Can I get an explanation as to why there is such a large surplus for BDIC? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Great to hear that, and I look forward to seeing some of the products from that work. I've raised this with my colleague with ENR. I think we have to look at fishing restrictions on Lac La Martre sometime soon before the road gets finished, to protect the fish resources there, so I'm just going to leave that with you folks, and I'll probably come back and ask about it at some future point.

With regard to overall tourism promotion, clearly, we're not going to get much international or even domestic tourism from other parts of Canada this summer. What is the department doing...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess I just feel like we have been spinning our wheels here for about six months, at least. These were major themes that were raised during the development of the report by the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment as it reviewed the legislation. There has never been a public response to that report from Cabinet or the Minister, perhaps.

The major themes that came out of that were lack of consultation or lack of engagement around regulations and a commitment in the future to do things in terms of co-drafting. I think there were some successes with co...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I really look forward to that plan for this function within ITI. I know that there was a lot of work to be done to get our systems in place for administering oil and gas rights and our own system and so on. That's all fine and dandy, but, if there's no activity taking place, then I think we need to look at what kind of resources we dedicate to those functions. I'm not going to get into an argument with the Minister. I've never said that these people are not working or doing a fine job because I know that they do. I just would ask that the Minister be a little more...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess I am trying to figure out, then, if there is no money in this budget, how the work is going to get done. We had a small glimpse of how much work is going to be required for those of us who live through the development of the bill itself and the review of it. How is this work going to get done if there are no additional resources in this budget? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Great, thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the Minister's commitment. This follows up on the recommendation from the last Assembly that the review should be done, an independent panel or some other form as has been done in Alberta twice with regard to their oil and gas regime, because the feds never really did this when they had jurisdiction. I think it's timely that this government takes that approach, so I am pleased to hear that the Minister is going to share the approach that she's going to develop with Regular MLAs.

I want to move on. My colleague from Yellowknife North asked about the...