Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Ah, now we're getting somewhere. I raised these issues right at the beginning in some of my remarks on the bill, that it is a self-reporting mechanism, and there are different reporting periods, and there are different reporting entities. Are there any reasons why we couldn't disclose the royalties paid by each mine to the public? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Remain in force until amended or repealed to the regulations. That's the case. The old system for zones which were again a tool of government to promote exploration. They all remain in perpetuity, but any zone requested by an Indigenous government will expire after 15 years. That seems inconsistent with how this clause works. In actual effect of an Indigenous government requested zone, it will operate for no longer than 15 years, and then can be renewed, but the ones that the government has created and is carrying over from the old regime, will last forever. That seems to...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I know that it has been a long day, but I need to go on the record for my constituents so that they can see, in the future, what happened here tonight. I supported carbon tax as part of a comprehensive strategy for taking action on climate change. However, I don't support Cabinet's plan.

That plan is made up of three parts: the carbon tax bill that is before us this evening, Bill 42, which imposes, basically, a surcharge, a tax on some fuels. The other two parts of Cabinet's approach on this include the Energy Strategy, and I have spoken at length about the Energy...

I want to thank the Minister for that. That is exactly what I said in the House earlier today. Unfortunately, it comes a little bit late, as the company is now in creditor protection. This happened again under our watch. Can the Minister tell us, though, whether there is any way we can turn the liabilities from Cameron Hills field back to the federal government under the Devolution Agreement?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That wasn't my question. Is there anything in law that the Minister can cite that would be used as justification to exclude community governments from being able to request restricted areas? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is about this new provision within the act whereby the Minister is going to require notice of intended work so that there is some understanding of what mining companies get up to when they are out there on the land. I think that this is a good thing, and I am pleased to see that, in the spirit of reconciliation, this notice of intended work is going to be provided to Indigenous governments. I support that. The purpose of this amendment, though, is to include municipal governments in that provision for notice so that we can avoid land use conflicts, but they can...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I was in the process of trying to get some clarification about why there is no definition of "prospecting" in the bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's great. Is there anything that would prevent the reporting of royalties by each mine? I'm not talking about the calculation of those royalties, but disclosure to the public of an actual figure of the royalties remitted to our government by each mine? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I continue to respectfully disagree. I think that this is going to create confusion that there are two sets of rules that can apply within one zone.

I want to move on, Mr. Chair, to one other issue with regard to zones, and I neglected to raise it earlier. It is what I call the race to the bottom, where we could have Indigenous governments competing with each other to try to attract investment by having lower and lower standards. What is the department going to do to prevent that from happening? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Chair. This is to amend the regulation-making powers of the Minister to basically authorize the Minister to enter into agreements with Indigenous governments on how the regulation-making might be carried out under this bill. This is enabling. This does not require the Minister to enter into such agreements. I think this is a helpful amendment in setting out the ability for the Minister to enter into such agreements.

In fact, we actually heard from the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated that there were efforts already underway to draft up some sort of memorandum of understanding or some...