Kevin O'Reilly

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have some remarks I would like to make about the concept of zones, if I may. I think this is an appropriate time, and I have some questions. I have had a lot of difficulty understanding the rationale for these zones. The way I heard it during the clausebyclause review is that the department wants to try to encourage mineral exploration and that this was a way to try to do that. I have said that I think that that's a dangerous mixing of objectives, where the department is supposed to be a regulator of mineral rights and at the same time of promoter, and I think that it's...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This benefit working group, was this representatives of the Indigenous governments, the Intergovernmental Council secretariat? Did it include other Indigenous governments that are not members of the Intergovernmental Council, like Dehcho First Nations or Akaitcho? What is this benefit working group? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Anybody who has hiked around Yellowknife knows that you can stumble across drill cores out in the bush that have been left there. As my colleague from Yellowknife North mentioned, we want to ensure that the money they expensed, the effort that has gone into drilling and retrieving core and storing it, that geological knowledge is protected. In some cases, drill core, when it's left out in the open can present a safety issue, a public safety issue, when cores start to fall over and so on. Some of the core may have the potential to generate acid, leach metals, so that there...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am all for providing clarity, so I'm okay with this. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister tell us why municipal governments were not included in those that could receive notice? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I also referenced the Cabinet-approved Department of Lands Establishment Policy that references some of the same sorts of things that you see in the purpose section, so these are the reasons why the Department of Lands was set up, the principle that should guide how they operate. I am just going to read some of these: land management decision making should recognize and respect Aboriginal treaty rights; decisions about public lands should take into consideration ecological, social, cultural, recreational, and economic values; decisions about land and resources should be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it would be fair to say that the way that this bill has been crafted is that the committee, Regular MLAs, are not able to make any changes to it. The only thing that this bill does, and I have said this before, is set out what the carbon tax rates will be. All of the decisions around what the rebates, the grants, how the money is going to get spent, are made at the total and utter discretion of a future Minister of Finance and by Cabinet. What's the point? The bill could not be changed anyways the way that this had been put together. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I don't want to prolong this, but this is the age-old debate of Regular MLAs trying to ensure that there is an opportunity for the public to have some engagement or opportunity to comment on draft regulations in another post-devolution bill moving forward.

We have raised this issue numerous times in the House. Cabinet has not developed any kind of framework or approach for this, and we are trying to respond to what we heard in committee from Indigenous governments, from municipal governments, and NGOs about their interest and willingness to try to work collaboratively with...

That's all I have, other than I think that it was unrealistic for committee to have do all of this work and provide quality results for our residents. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's interesting. I hadn't heard that before, so I appreciate the heads-up moments before it is going to come to the floor. As I understand it, Alberta had a carbon tax change in government there. They took away the carbon tax. Can someone explain to me what the implementation date is for the federal backstop in Alberta now that there is no carbon tax in Alberta? Thanks, Mr. Chair.