Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I understand I am only supposed to have one. Sometimes the questions and answers go on for a bit. I want to talk about the wolf incentive program. I appreciate what the Minster said in the House earlier about outside experts. There was a working group established, including experts from his own department, the Tlicho Government, and other Indigenous governments. They ranked and rated 12 different options for dealing with wolves. The top option was aerial shooting on the cabin grounds. The next one was summer harvest assistance. The next one was diversionary feeding. You have...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I don't think I have seen a document. I think I have seen a draft of a document, a very early preliminary draft. The department claims that it has responded to the OAG recommendations and the Climate Change Strategic Framework action plan. I would probably disagree with their assessment, but I don't think that we have actually seen a formal response to the Auditor General report.

ENR says that it has the authority and leadership under the Climate Change Strategic Framework for monitoring and reporting on climate change. What kind of monitoring and reporting do they intend to...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, with my five seconds. I guess I am just a bit surprised, more than a bit surprised, that there is no accountability framework, no evaluation framework for this now. We are talking about moving 69 people around GNWT into the Department of Finance without an accountability framework, a way of measuring the success of this, so I am more than worried about this. I will wait and see what the Minister is able to provide to standing committee in terms of the evaluation framework and then in the interim report, but I guess I have heard concerns from constituents as well about...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the response. Does the department have a rough figure for how much that has cost the department to date? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I really look forward to seeing what this supplemental looks like, but the plan doesn't actually require new money to do some of the things that are already set out in there. Offsetting, mobile caribou conservation measures, I don't think that that actually requires a lot of money to do, so when is the department going to start doing some work on protection of habitat instead of just concentrating on wolves and harvesters? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the commitment from the Minister, but that is not very helpful as I try to work my way through the rest of the main estimates in Committee of the Whole. This information can and should have been provided to us before we arrived here. I would like to know whether there are any reductions made to the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program now, because I don't know what I am working from anymore. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can I get a commitment, then, out of the Minister? Because I don't think I have actually seen this evaluation framework or accountability framework or whatever the department wants to call it. Can I get a commitment out of the Minister to share that with the appropriate standing committee? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The department, and the Minister said this in his opening remarks, is taking a cut again. This is the fourth year in a row. The department has lost 10 percent of its overall budget over that period of time. When I checked the Department of Finance website for the business plan, there is a list of the mandate items. Only five of 25 mandate items have been completed, and one of the ones that was marked as completed is the Centre of Excellence feasibility study, which hasn't even started, so I'm not sure how that made it in there.

Before the Minister says anything about me...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes. I was involved in starting the work on that before I even arrived here, so I am worried that this is taking way too long while the herd continues to decline. The Minister, in response to questions from my colleague earlier today, talked about the need to develop a plan. That is the plan for the Bathurst caribou herd. Everybody was involved in making it. How much longer is it going to take to get this thing approved, and does it have to go through Cabinet? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I hope that I have this right, because I am not working from the same page as our friends. I think there is $37,000 that has been cut out of community-based monitoring and research under the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program. Can someone tell me why that cut has been made and what is being cut? Thanks, Mr. Chair.