Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Madam la Presidente. Committee wishes to consider Bill 68, Tabled Document 69419(2), Committee Report 5019(2), Committee Report 4719(2). Mahsi, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. No, that's a great idea. And I'll be happy to discuss that with my colleagues on this side of the House. But, you know, yesterday in the context of the government response on Bill 60, you know, we asked the House asked the Premier to actually write a letter to the Prime Minister of Canada on the lack of energy options here in the Northwest Territories. And their side would refuse to do that, to actually send a letter to the prime minister on our behalf after a motion in the House. So I don't think I have a lot of confidence anyways, what I want to do is get the...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I've been an MLA in this Assembly for seven years. I've never had an opportunity to meet with a federal minister. I'm glad that the Premier's doing that tomorrow. Why doesn't the Premier invite the Minister to meet with any of the Regular MLAs? It's never happened. So will the Minister commit to see if she can get a meeting for us as Regular MLAs with one at least one federal minister before I finish. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I'll try my best here. You know, the Minister talks about this not being part of the work that the Intergovernmental Council does but I think he probably needs to check with them. But, you know, this project assessment policy is not about an evidencebased make or evidencebased process. It's about preventing presentation of evidence and expert opinion that is not consistent with Cabinet's views.

So can the Minister tell us whether this government is really committed to evidencebased decisions and how that will be implemented in the context of GNWT sponsored...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. The clock is running out. In response to the written questions I submitted in March 2022, the Minister said that there would not be any public engagement or work with Indigenous governments on the review of the project assessment policy. We have these public engagements on such mundane matters as renaming the old Stanton Hospital and a product survey for liquor and cannabis, but we're not going to ask the public about how GNWT should be involved in environmental assessment major projects? Can the Minister explain why the...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I have raised this government's faulty project assessment policy many times as an MLA, and here I go again.

Cabinet approved the project assessment policy on April 13th, 2017. The project assessment policy requires quote, "any technical advice and evidence provided to boards by the respective staff is in line with legislation, cabinet direction, and ministerial policies established under this policy." This policy reads like a way of muzzling our scientists and preventing presentation of evidence that may not be consistent with Cabinet's way of thinking. My concerns...

I'm just going to ask the Premier to add one more thing to that list when she's meeting with the Minister tomorrow, that this trip, next trip, would the Minister please meet with some of the Regular MLAs. Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I remember going to Ottawa one time with Bill Erasmus as the national chief of the Dene Nation at the time. We actually went into the House of Commons. We actually stood by stairs, you know, as they're coming down, and we actually did meet with a federal minister in the lobby. But we shouldn't have to do that in this building. Yeah, we do things differently. That's because we're a consensus government, Mr. Speaker. So I want this Premier to actually commit to raise this issue with the Minister while he's here that he should actually start to meet with some of us...

Yeah, the Regular MLAs.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Although it may be an internal policy, it's a public interest. That's why I keep raising it in the House. A key feature of the devolution agreement was the establishment of an Intergovernmental Council to allow the public and Indigenous governments to cooperate and collaborate on matters related to lands and resources management. The goal of the Intergovernmental Council is to work together to explore ways to coordinate the respective lands and resource management practices, share capacity, and avoid duplication.

Mr. Speaker, those two sentences are directly from...