Merci, Monsieur le President. On October 11 of last year, I made a Member's statement on the issue of coordination of parental leave benefits with the changes to federal legislation that will improve these benefits.

These changes to the Canada Labour Code will provide a minimum of five weeks' paid leave for each parent. The changes were originally to come into effect on June 1, 2019, but the federal government recently moved up that effective date to March 17 of this year.

Amendments are required of our Employment Standards Act that will require employers to honour extended leave requests from...

Merci, Monsieur le President. This will be my last reply to the budget addressed for the 18th Assembly, and I look forward to thunderous applause from my colleagues across the way. I have organized my reply in the following manner, with some general comments that review the process revenues and departmental highlights. I conclude with some advice to future assemblies.

Cabinet's cuts to programs and services appear to have come to an end except for one department, and that's Environment and Natural Resources, and I will have more to say on that issue a little later. We continue to run up a debt...

Thanks to the Minister for that. Well, if I have anything to do with it, that bill is going to fly straight through here. Wow, I actually got an applause from the other side of the House for a change. One of the easiest ways we can extend and improve federal parental leave benefits to our employees is to mend relative collective agreements. I know that is a sensitive area right now, but can the Minister tell us whether our government has made an offer to the relevant unions to mend collective agreements to allow our employees to take full advantage of the improved parental leave benefits?

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. First off, I would like to commend the Minister for fast-tracking public consultation on changes to the Employment Standards Act and to indicate my strong support for including domestic violence leave. The public consultation on this process ended January the 14th. Can the Minister tell us what the next steps are? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure. The Minister, along with his federal counterpart, recently announced $1.2 million for the expansion of Taltson hydro. This House approved a capital budget for 2019-2020 in the fall. Can the Minister explain whether the funding announced recently is actually new money or what is already in the capital budget for 2019-2020? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Minister for that. Has the Minister actually spoken to anybody from the Deninu Kue First Nation about Taltson recently?

Thanks very much to the Minister for that commitment. I know that Alberta just went on the market to get some additional power. They spend a billion dollars to get 600 megawatts of wind energy at 3.7 cents/kilowatt hour. We are paying over 23, I think, 24 cents/kilowatt hour here in Yellowknife, so I am trying to figure out the Minister's rationale for saying that Alberta and Saskatchewan are actually going to want to buy our power. We should be actually bringing it up from Alberta. Can the Minister provide some rationale for why he thinks that Alberta and Saskatchewan will actually want to...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Minister for that, and I hope that he can make the figure actually public. In the Minister's statement yesterday, he claims that the full expansion or some kind of expansion of Taltson hydro is going to remove up to 240,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, in the 2030 Energy Strategy, the claim is 227,000 kilotonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. So maybe hopes are growing that Taltson is going to continue to grow, but what is going on with these greenhouse gas reduction figures, and can the Minister explain the discrepancy? Which one is the...

Thanks to the Minister for that, and I will double check to see where the $120,000 is coming from, whether it's the capital or the O and M budget. As far as I know, there are no buyers for Taltson expansion power, no secured funding other than this little drop in the bucket, and no business case. Can the Minister explain whether there is a business case for the Taltson expansion or when that might be ready and whether it will be shared with the public and this side of the House?

Merci, Monsieur le President. On January 23rd, federal and territorial governments announced funding for the Taltson Hydro Expansion projects. There is $480,000 from Canada to support feasibility and engineering work for the expansion and $620,000 to support Indigenous engagement. Our government will have to come up with $120,000 for the feasibility and engineering work. It's not clear who will actually receive the money, when, and whether this is old money or new.

Hydro-electricity is not necessarily green energy. There are impacts on water quality, aquatic life, release of greenhouse gases...