Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair, no, other than I appreciate the information that has been provided by the staff. They know that I am a strong supporter of the facility and the functions that it performs, and I look forward to the next phase of the life of that particular institution. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I guess the other thing that is sort of bubbling away in the back of my mind, too, is that, with a polytechnic university on the horizon, Yellowknife does need a real campus and that it would be great to be able to combine maybe the sort of things that could and should happen in a polytechnic with some of the things that do happen at the museum, as well. Because there is certainly a lot of interest in language revitalization, and the museum and some of the staff there do take strong roles with that, given the artifacts and some of the heritage items there and so on. I...

Thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks to the Minister and his staff for that information. Can the Minister commit to sharing that study with the standing committee, and options that the department might come up with, before they go to Cabinet for a final decision? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that. Just because he says it's coordinated, it doesn't actually mean it actually is coordinated, so I am going to have to push that with him. There is nothing, though, on the ENR website about the Environmental Rights Act. There is a general page that talks about how the bill or the legislation was going to be reviewed in the last Assembly, but there is nothing there to help promote the understanding of the new legislation. Can the Minister tell us when his department will finally take a more proactive role in promoting this...

I am feeling kind of SLAPP-happy right now. I want to thank the Minister for that, but talk is cheap. I am happy to be part of that conversation. My next question: I have reviewed the ENR website and could barely find any mention of a public registry for the Protected Areas Act, let alone some of the other legislation that the department is responsible for, including the Environmental Rights Act. Can the Minister tell us when or whether his department is considering a central environmental public registry to capture all of the reporting requirements found in the various environment and...

Merci, Madame la Presidente. The original Environmental Rights Act was passed as a private Member's bill by the Assembly in 1990. That legislation went through its first and only review in the last Assembly. There have been only four requests under the act in 30 years, so it's obviously not very well used or promoted. Of the four requests filed, there has only ever been one investigation actually carried out.

Unfortunately, the new Environmental Rights Act only made some minor improvements to what was already in place. The basis for investigations was extended to include acts of omission, but...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the Minister for his honesty in all of that and forthrightness. I do have some ideas, though, that I will pitch his way. There was a collaborative approach taken with the NWTAC for the municipal funding gap review. There was a working group. They looked at the issue. They looked at some alternatives. It included people from MACA, as well. One of the principles that they said was that no community should lose funding as a result of this. I think that is a good thing. I think that is something you might want to think about as a principle for looking at the...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of areas I'd like to explore. One is early learning childcare. The funding shown on page 41 actually looks like it's declining over time. The backdrop to this is that the early development instrument results were released in 2018, and they actually showed an increase in the vulnerability of our youngest students, children up to age five, which is not a good place to be. I know the former Premier got some, maybe, headlines that he really didn't want to get for talking about that in the media. In every single study I've ever seen about investment in early...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, and I take what the Minister says, that there are some very specialized requirements for a museum. There is also a great example in Whitehorse where Yukon archives are co-located with the Yukon College. They have an arts centre there. It's a wonderful kind of facility. It's a little bit out of the downtown area, but I think there is another example of how we can do things. I just want to move on to one other question, and that is the name of this facility, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Is that something that we might look at, you know, finding a better...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I really appreciate that. I guess one of the things that is sort of in the back of my mind is the fact that we don't have a territorial visitors' centre. If anybody has been to Whitehorse, they actually have a spectacular one that is right in their downtown area, and it does serve the interests of the whole Yukon. Is there some thought being put into, perhaps, different partnerships or co-uses or however we may want to frame it, in terms of other government needs, given sort of the central location and the function that the museum has played over the years in terms of...