Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In my earlier remarks, I mentioned how, during the development of the bill, the public consultations that were held, there were a number of items that the departmental staff had raised, maybe even some expectations, dare I say, because those were brought to the attention of standing committee during the review of the bill. There were expectations raised around an environmental registry, that there would be methods to propose policies, programs, agreements, initiatives, maybe even an ability to comment on those, as well, when they became posted to the environmental registry.

T...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I have two documents I would like to table, the first being "CBC News Article posted July 2, 2019, 'Here’s what you need to know as carbon tax takes effect in Yukon.'" The second document is a copy of the "Yukon Government Carbon Price Rebate Implementation Act." Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks. I would like to close, if I could, then. The intent of this was to try to be helpful.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Actually, I do not have any comments, but I do support the motion. Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Premier for that. There have been a lot of anxiety and unfavourable reactions in the past to efforts to review extended health benefits programs here. I would like to know what kind of preparation work is specifically being done and how our stakeholders are being properly informed and assured that this work is going to start soon. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So I don't want to put words in the Minister's mouth, but I think what the Minister was saying was that these criteria, in the Minister's view, would have to be applied to any decision or action taken by the government. Is that the case? As I understand it, these would help determine what decisions might significantly affect the environment, and only then would the statement of environmental values come into play. Would these criteria apply and be required to be considered for every single government decision and action undertaken in the future? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Earlier in my opening comments, I mentioned that this is not a terribly well-used piece of legislation: four requests in 29 years, only one of which resulted in an investigation. I think that it is important that we give citizens tools to help protect the environment. This bill will help improve that, but we also have to do, I think, a much better job in communicating what sort of rights citizens have under the Environmental Rights Act and promote those rights and how people can follow up on them, whether it's requests for investigations, taking action themselves through the...

Thanks to the Premier for clarifying that autism is covered. I know when I talked to people here in Yellowknife, when they called to find out whether autism was covered, the frontline staff said it was not, so there seems to be some confusion here. Regardless of the government's position on whether autism is covered or not, I would like to know from the Minister: does a comprehensive list exist of what's covered under the specified disease conditions, and will the Minister table that list in this House?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. What this does is say that, in deciding how to implement the statement of environmental values that is adopted by Cabinet, Ministers and I believe it's deputy heads shall consider the factors that the Minister has already agreed to use in determining whether an investigation is going to be carried out. So this is not saying that they have to make a decision in a certain way. You just have to consider these things in determining whether something has the potential to significantly affect the environment, so I think this is helpful guidance. It does not restrict how a Minister...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I, too, would like to commend the chair of our committee in particular. This was an unusual bill for us to deal with, and I know that the chair did have to spend some extra time on this one. He did talk to the chair of the Nunavut standing committee on the phone about this bill to make sure that our efforts were coordinated and understood. Our staff behind the scenes were also working together on making sure that we understood what the concerns of Nunavut were with regard to this bill and so that we could try to harmonize our efforts in that way. I also want to commend...