Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I want to thank the Minister for that commitment. I look forward to seeing the priorities that the department has set for legislative change. That will be a very helpful and interesting document to look at for transition planning. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is all I have.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the passion of the Minister on this. Any idea as to when the waiting times might be available? Is there a plan in place to do this? With the system transformation and so on, I understand that there's probably still some work that needs to be done there to standardize reporting and so on, but is it the Minister's intention to try to have this work done, what quarter of, say, 2019-2020, where the public could expect to start to see some wait times maybe posted to a website or whatever? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that information. The phase two increases, are they found in this budget, or are they spread out over a number of years? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I will wait until we get to that part of the main estimates. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I will not speak to the process that got us here with ENR, as I covered that in my previous remarks on Bill 38, but I will also provide some comments on the bill and concerns with what is there and what is missing.

The original Environmental Rights Act was passed as a private Member's bill by the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly in 1990. The bill was sponsored by former Yellowknife Centre MLA Brian Lewis, who modelled his bill after a similar statute in the state of Michigan. I wish to recognize his important contribution to the public interest. The...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. We started a conversation here on the floor of the House, so I'm hoping that he could meet or pick up the phone and talk to some of our friends about this issue. In considering whether the National Energy Board should continue as a regulator of oil and gas activities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, there of course would need to be consultations with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. Can the Minister tell us, the public, whether he's had any of those discussions so far and, if not, why not? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank the Minister for promoting OROGO, and, at his suggestion, I have gone over and met with his staff, and I do agree that they're doing a good job. In the event, though, that there are interests in or development of petroleum resources that straddle areas where the National Energy Board and OROGO have jurisdiction, can the Minister explain how this would be managed?

Merci, Monsieur le President. When GNWT negotiated devolution in 2014, there was an interesting arrangement whereby the federal government's National Energy Board remained as the oil and gas regulator in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region onshore areas. In other onshore areas of the NWT, the GNWT had the ability to create its own regulator and has done so through the Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations.

It is not clear why the federal government of the day and our government, led by the current Premier, would agree to such an arrangement. Why should a regulator established under...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Our friends advised that this is where midwifery services are to be found. There are additional resources in here. Maybe if you could have somebody remind me of that and with a brief description of what the resources are going to be used towards? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Sorry. I don't want to flog a dead horse here, but could the Minister make a commitment to, I don't know, report to the standing committee maybe on a quarterly basis where the work stands, just so committee and Regular MLAs know the progress that's being made and when, say, a launch date might be scheduled? Thanks, Mr. Chair.