Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, who sets regulations for onshore oil and gas development and aggressively promotes that development. The Oil and Gas Spills and Debris Liability Regulations set absolute liability limits between $10 and $40 million, depending on the location of spill or debris. As I said, the Deepwater Horizon disaster resulted in fines and settlements more than 200 times that maximum amount. I know it's offshore, but onshore can cost us a lot of money, as well. Can the Minister explain why there are these...

I want to thank the Minister for that. I didn't really get a response about how we're going to report the cost of cannabis implementation. One of the key changes that Regular MLAs put into the Cannabis Legalization Regulation Implementation Act was the requirement for a review of the implementation, administration, and effectiveness of the legislation. So what measures, monitoring, reporting, or other means is the Minister putting in place now to ensure that the review of the legislation is meaningful and evidence-based?

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Finance, who was in charge for preparing for the legalization and regulation of cannabis. It's clear from the public briefing on cannabis implementation we had on October 10th in response to the committee report on Bill 6 that there is no overall government-wide plan for implementation. We heard that the Minister says this plan is going to be available on Monday; when I look at the response from Cabinet to the committee report, it says: "The Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Interdepartmental Working Group is developing a...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to provide a quick report on Cabinet's cannabis legalization preparedness. First of all, the sales site of the new NWT Liquor and Cannabis Commission popped up today to sell cannabis online, although it's extremely hard to find and there are no links from GNWT sites. On the information side, a number of departmental websites deal with cannabis. If one department could win a prize on this, it would be Health and Social Services. It has a good assortment of information, documents, and links on health effects of cannabis. The department sponsored an online...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Well, I appreciate the response from the Minister. Since this is GNWT land which is right next to the roadway itself, what are we doing, then, to deal with the tailings that are there? Because there are all-terrain vehicle tracks, and the stuff is being spread out. It's our responsibility. What is the Minister doing about it?

I would like to thank the Minister for that. This is not the first time I have raised the issue in the House, so can the Minister commit to picking up the phone and calling Imperial Oil about fixing the site out there?

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to sincerely thank the Minister for that commitment to work with Regular MLAs in designing that report, and I think that's a good commitment.

We now have draft regulations that could enable private retail of cannabis, but in my view they are clearly flawed. The Minister has total and complete discretion over any applications. There is no timeline for approval, or even a requirement for decisions to be made. No appeal process and authority for the Minister to determine the financial feasibility of a proposed operation. It's not even clear whether committee or...

I want to thank the Minister for being forthright there. I look forward to the report on the overall plan. So, according to the response to the standing committee report, there is going to be a breakdown of sales by online and by individual stores and by product type in annual reports from the Liquor and Cannabis Commission, but the expenditures for cannabis-related programs, including things like public education, public health research, community support, and so on, it's not clear where those are going to be reported. So can the Minister tell the public and this House whether any of the...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Earlier today we had the grade 7 class from William McDonald School in the gallery. I want to thank them and the teacher, Ms. Laura Bromley, for attending. I also have a constituent in the gallery, Ms. Kim McNearney. I want to recognize her and all of the work she has done with regard to responsible use of cannabis. Thank you very much. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that. I know I was a bit facetious, but the fence is about to fall over, and we don't want people getting in there and running around. When I was out at the site, there were also all-terrain vehicle tracks outside the fence, on bare mine tailings. It's not clear whether this is part of the road right-of-way or what. Can the Minister tell us: who is responsible for the remediation of the areas outside the fence, next to the road itself, as this material is being spread all over the place?