Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Committee did make five recommendations in our report. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories create a separate section on its website for the Integrity Commissioner and that all documents that must be posted on the register be located on this page. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I move that clause 19 of Bill 39 be amended by a), striking out "and" at the end of English version of paragraph (d), and substituting semi-colon; b), striking out the period at the end of paragraph (e) and substituting "and"; and c), adding the following after paragraph (e); (f) the steps which were taken to prepare or amend a statement of environmental values under section 17; and (g) the steps that were taken to ensure that a statement of environmental values prepared or amended under section 17 was considered in decisions where required by this act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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?