Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am not going to flog this one any further, other than to suggest that the department should develop some kind of an implementation plan, share that with Regular MLAs in the next Assembly, and make that available to the public so that they know how the bill itself and the provisions in here are going to roll out over time. Some pretty high expectations have been set, and maybe some expectations have been crashed. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think that we are going to probably have some further discussion of that. I think one of the last committee recommendations in its report was that, of course, the time is going to run out for the Minister to have to respond to committee's recommendations. Given the amount of work that the public put into commenting on this bill, and the amount of work that standing committee spent on reviewing the bill and providing comments and trying to negotiate changes, is the Minister prepared to commit to providing a response to committee's recommendations before the end of this...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do have some questions, if I can, and then I think I feel compelled to say some remarks in response to what I have heard from the Minister. If the bill is passed, what date does the Minister intend to bring this into force? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I couldn't quite catch it all. I think the Minister said 24 months. Why would it take one or two years to actually bring this bill into force? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Am I to understand, then, that this is a barrier moving forward, that there may be new developments that happen in the Northwest Territories that require significant financial security, and our government is not going to be in an a position to accept that, and the taxpayers and the environment are going to be at risk? Is that what I am hearing? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to table the following document. It is the webpage from the Department of Health and Social Services, "Applying for the Extended Health Benefits for Specified Disease Conditions Program." Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I would thank the law clerk for that clarification. I just would like to address some of the arguments that I heard from the Minister. He said that a few other jurisdictions, or no other jurisdictions, at least perhaps in Canada, required financial security become mandatory. I don't think many other places in Canada have a Giant Mine in their backyard that is going to cost taxpayers well over a billion dollars.

This provision that's in the Commissioner's Land Act right now was carefully considered by a previous standing committee, and actually agreed to by a previous...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have three specific things I guess I would like to raise with the Minister. We heard from Indigenous governments that this is a bill that was not developed collaboratively; there was no co-development process for it. I just would like an explanation from the Minister as to why that did not happen with this bill. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the Minister for that information. I don't think that I heard the words "habitat protection," though. I mentioned in my statement that Cabinet is still sitting on the Bathurst Caribou Range Plan. Can the Minister provide an update as to when Cabinet will approve this plan and announce that publicly?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. This was a motion that was introduced at the committee clause-by-clause review of the bill. It was supported by committee, but the Minister did not concur for the reasons that he just provided, the need for flexibility and so on to allow for some commercial operations not to have security required of them. The wording of this would make it mandatory to some degree that for dispositions for commercial or industrial use, that financial security would be required subject to whatever the Minister sets out in regulations. There, again, is an opportunity for the Minister to set...