Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I am challenging the Premier right now about how we ensure where the evidence is going to be, and how the public is to find out about that evidence, that climate change will actually become a consideration in terms of funding new programs, services, infrastructure projects, those kind of trade-offs. I guess that I am hearing that there are some kind of guidelines that might get changed, that there might be a Cabinet committee that looks a little bit different. I am not getting a lot of comfort that this is actually going to result in evidence-based decision-making and...

Merci, Monsieur le President. The GNWT began setting up single-service window centres in small communities in 2010-2011, and we now operate in a total of 23 communities. The most recent is Jean Marie River in 2018-2019. These centres house government service officers, or GSOs, who help residents gain much-improved access to government, especially for residents in more remote communities where GNWT staff may not be located. An annual training camp provides professional skills development, functional training, and updates from various departments and Service Canada, and team-building...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I don't think the Premier understood my question, so I will try again. Is there a policy? Are there guidelines? What is the document or the authority that says that legal considerations need to be discussed in an FMB submission? Is it possible that that could be amended in some way to include climate change? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. What specific tool, legislation, policy, is going to ensure that, when significant and important decisions are made by the government, climate change becomes a consideration? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I haven't heard anything different from the way this was handled in the last Assembly. The Auditor General of Canada, the climate change audit that was conducted here said one of the main problems was that there was no policy, no legislation that clearly established responsibility and authority when it came to the climate change issue. I don't see anything here that addresses this issue. There's this climate change council, which is external. It will include the GNWT, presumably, but there's nothing in here about how we're going to organize ourselves internally. We had a...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to finish in less than five minutes. I have one comment and one question, if I may. My comment is that the last Premier said that we were going to get all of the negotiations completed in the last Assembly, and we had one agreement-in-principle reached. The bar was too high with the last Assembly. This one, I think it's too low, with just two of maybe 16 tables. I think, hopefully, we can get somewhere in between.

That was my comment, Madam Chair. My question is the advisory committee that's mentioned in the "how we will demonstrate progress," the very first...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Can someone tell me what this $200,000 for initial work on an environmental assessment, what that is actually going to be spent on and what is it going to accomplish? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate the response from the Minister. What happens after 2023, if there are capital needs for these three protected areas? As I understand it, there is going to be a master plan or a plan developed for each of these; presumably, there are going to be some efforts to encourage local business development and tourism with these new protected areas. What happens after four years, if there are capital needs for these areas? Are we going to have to go to the federal government cap in hand, or is this something that we would start to fund ourselves? Mahsi, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Can the Minister tell us what these three patrol boats are for?

I want to thank the Minister for that. I think that the shorter version of that is that we have no liability for the Cantung site, but I will deal with that offline. I would like to know from the Minister, if I can, why this government, GNWT, accepted the Mactung property as part of the financial security for the Cantung mine when it was in operation.