Kevin O'Reilly

I thank the Premier for her forthrightness. I had understood that copies of these letters would be provided to the standing committees before they've been finalized. That's what I had understood was supposed to happen. I know COVID, and so on, but here we are more than two months late, and the Premier is saying that the letters are finalized. I haven't seen these letters. When is the Premier going to provide these letters to the Regular MLAs, or at least to the standing committees?

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Premier. I do believe that she is committed to an inclusive process. Clearly, there have been some success stories during this pandemic, and I mentioned some of those in my statement. We have got social programs that are starting to deal with homelessness. We have got a managed alcohol program, wage subsidy for low-income workers, payrolling of Income Assistance and more. Can the Premier share her thoughts about how we can keep these significant gains and how we can continue to plan for economic recovery at the same time? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I see that the clock is ticking down, so I am just going to make a couple of comments here. Look, Arctic Energy Alliance, I think they do good work. Personally, we have accessed them a couple of times for energy efficiency work on our own home. Part of the difficulty is the programs that they offer, you have to have the money to be able to invest to do the upgrades, and it's often expensive work. They need to find ways to broaden their programs for people who don't have the cash up front and make the programs more accessible. That is a suggestion.

The other thing that I...

I want to thank the Premier for that. I think that I almost heard her say that she is willing to look at the Emergency Measures Act. That's a good thing. I have lots of other ideas. I am sure that the Chief Public Health Officer is going to conduct some kind of review, as well, but the review needs to be done in a public fashion. Maybe the Auditor General can give us some ideas, as well.

I want to move on, Mr. Speaker. As MLAs, we collectively developed a set of priorities, and then Cabinet went off and developed a mandate that was tabled and discussed in the House. Would the Premier agree that...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm just trying to find in the budget here, how does Arctic Energy Alliance get its funding from Infrastructure? Is it somewhere else in the budget, or is this the portion to ask questions about it? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, monsieur le President. Like many residents of the Northwest Territories, I have been mulling over the dramatic changes to our lives as a result of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Very few of us could have predicted in January where we are today. Many have lost their jobs or had their income severely reduced. Students have lost the opportunity to fully complete their studies this year. Many parents and guardians are struggling with adapting to work from home.

On the positive side, there have been significant government assistance programs developed and delivered in very short order...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I also have some questions about the large-scale commercial and industrial something-or-other related to the Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund. As I recall, there was some kind of proposal submitted to basically give money to industry that did not meet initially with Environment and Climate Change Canada's approval the first time around, so they had to go back and renegotiate something. What is this program all about? If they have to provide details offline, I guess I would appreciate it, but I don't, sort of, ever recall seeing a request for submissions or applications...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess we're fortunate the deputy minister knows the deputy minister who served before in ENR. Is this like a scientific study, and who is actually carrying out the work? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Look, I have been up to Canyon Creek. I have seen the road. It was parcelled in a way that allowed the community to take better advantage of it, but that is not the project that was submitted back in 2013 to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. I just want to caution the Minister to make sure that, if you are going to submit something to environmental assessment, you better have it scoped out properly and you better have the money to do it. Otherwise, it's wasting time and it's wasting money.

If I had to pick one of the three big projects, I would...

Thanks, Madam Chair. On page 227, the contract services amount last year was $3,978,000. This year it's $4,332,000. Can someone explain what's happening there? Thanks, Madam Chair.