Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister. Great to hear that he and his staff are working already on this issue. I am just wondering whether the Minister can commit to making the small changes that are likely necessary in the Education Act to avoid spending money on elections rather than education. Can he make those changes before 2021? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank the Minister for that information. We have been informed by the Yellowknife education authorities that the overwhelming opinion of parents is that they want money spent on education rather than holding elections. Does the Minister agree that additional costs for separate elections by education authorities to conduct their own elections would be better spent on children's education?

Merci, Monsieur le President. Over the last few months, Yellowknife MLAs met with trustees of Yellowknife Catholic schools and Yellowknife District No. 1 and the Commission scolaire francophone Territoires du Nord-Ouest. The City of Yellowknife held a plebiscite on extending the term of office for its councillors to four years from three in 2018. Of the Yellowknife voters who voted, 60.6 percent were in favour, and a bylaw to extend the term of office for mayor and council to four years was passed.

The term of office for Yellowknife City Council and Yellowknife Education Authorities are now out...

I want to thank the Minister for the straightforward response. The situation for CSFTNO is different, as I mentioned in my statement, in that its commissaires represent two communities that now have different cycles for their municipal elections. To me, it sounds like the best solution here may be to allow education authorities to set their own terms of office, with approval of the Minister, of course. I am sure that the Minister is aware of this complication, but I am wondering whether his department has contemplated a solution for the term of office issue for CSFTNO.

I want to thank the Minister for that. The GNWT previously has opposed these kinds of upstream developments, whether they are pulp mills, tar sands projects, and so on. We actually got to appoint somebody to one of these panels at one point, a resident of the Northwest Territories. Our government has been on record as opposing these sorts of things in the past, so I'd like to know whether our government has actually taken a position on the Teck Resources Frontier tar sands mine.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that, and I look forward to the briefing and actually seeing a signed transboundary agreement some point soon, but the Wek'eezhii Renewable Resources Board, in approving the joint management proposal, the most recent one, directed that an adaptive management framework be developed for the Bathurst and Bluenose-East caribou herds. The Minister has accepted that recommendation, so can he tell us how this adaptive framework is going to help with recovery of these herds, and whether actions will finally include habitat protection...

I want to thank the Minister for that great news about more money being available, and I look forward to the details of that. I have reviewed the Bathurst Caribou Range Plan and acknowledge that it was collaboratively developed and its technically sound. The problem has been with habitat protection, where virtually nothing has been done in terms of execution. Can the Minister tell us when this government is finally going to protect key habitat, either temporarily, with recommended mobile caribou-conservation measures, or permanent land withdrawals?

Merci, Monsieur le President. In the last Assembly, I made over ten statements on the caribou crisis. It's now an emergency, and all our government has done is some planning, restrict harvest, fund some research and increase the wolf bounty.

On October 4, 2019, the Wek'eezhii Renewable Resources Board released its decisions on Tlicho Government and GNWT joint management proposal for the Bathurst caribou herd. Here are a couple of short quotes:

"The Board notes that there are no dates for implementation of Bathurst Caribou Range Plan Policies, nor is there any framework or timelines to judge how...

Merci, monsieur le President. My question is for the Premier. Cabinet Ministers and GNWT staff travelled to Vancouver during the week of January 18 to 23, 2020, to attend the Association for Mineral Exploration Roundup. Can the Premier provide a list of all the NWT Ministers and staff who travelled to Vancouver for the meeting, and:

total cost of travel, including transportation, showing air travel by executive versus economy class, accommodations, expenses, and associated allowances;

any related contract costs for the trip, particularly costs of conference registration, exhibitor staffing, any...

That's great to hear from the Minister, that we've got a transboundary water agreement, but that shouldn't stop us from taking a position on this project that's upstream of us. We're not going to get any benefits; we're just going to get the effluent downstream. I'd like to know from the Minister: he's talked about this transboundary water agreement with Alberta. What help can that agreement give us in terms of adverse impacts?