Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I appreciate the commitment on the part of the Minister, because some of these notes are dated May 14th and so on. This is clearly information that was generated internally for your own internal approvals through the FMB, or whatever, and it would helpful to be able to share that with us.

I take the Minister's commitment seriously that he is going to look at this, so I don't have anything further in terms of opening remarks. I will have some more detailed questions and comments on some of the items as we go through the package. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I, too, am concerned about the large amount of carry-over. I guess I wonder how much of that is due to reduced capacity within the Department of Infrastructure. This is a department that was a creation of amalgamating Public Works and Services and the Department of Transportation. It was one of three departments to actually take a cut last year in its O and M budget. I went back and tried to refresh my memory here about how many positions were lost during that amalgamation, and it looks like it was about 45, at least, on 580 when you combine the two departments, so that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate that information from the Minister, and look forward to the reconciliation. One area that I am a bit concerned about is this active forestry carbon sequestration. What is that funding actually going to be used for? I think I saw in the briefing materials that some of it is going to be used to replant areas where there may have been fires, but it sounds like some of it is going to be used to replant areas that were supposed to be replanted after forests were harvested. We should be preventing that sort of thing from happening. If areas are harvested...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I have two documents I would like to table today. The first is a letter dated April 10th from the assistant deputy minister, Planning and Coordination, Department of Lands, to the executive director of the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. The second document I have, Mr. Chair, is a letter from the regional superintendent, North Slave Region, Department of Infrastructure, to the Honourable Lou Sebert, Minister of Lands. It is dated April 30, 2018, regarding the Tlicho all-season road. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I asked some questions during the briefing about how we reconcile the amount of money that is being requested in the supplementary estimates here for the Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund against what was actually applied for. Even with the information that has been provided since the briefing, I still can't figure this out. The original application that was submitted was first year money was, if I can find it here, was 2017-2018, and I don't know around $2.4 million, and then, 2018-2019, $7 million, and we are being asked to approve $5.5 million. Are we going to get a...

I want to thank the Minister for that. I am going to be tabling these letters later today, but that letter from his regional superintendent makes no mention of the firewall. In fact, it seems to be in breach of this apparent firewall that was set up.

I want to move on to the review board. They criticized this so-called "whole of government" approach that is required by Cabinet's Project Assessment Policy because it limits the availability of evidence and expertise and does not serve the public interest.

Does the Minister accept that criticism, and will the Minister work to change the Project...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I believe in collective bargaining, as I have said before. I support an increase, whether it is for our nonunionized employees, as well as our unionized employees, and I really urge the Minister to get on with negotiations with our main union, the Union of Northern Workers. I have already been on record as supporting a CPI increase on an annual basis, and I think that is an appropriate offer that we should be making to our main union. Now is not the time to, perhaps, discuss that, but I support regular increases to our employees. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. In my Member's statement, I referred to an unprecedented letter sent by the regional superintendent of Infrastructure to the Minister of Lands on April 30th that attempts to override the recommendations of the review board in an almost two-year-long environmental assessment of the Tlicho all-season road.

My questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure as the proponent for this project. Did the Minister know about this April 30th letter, and why was it sent when there was supposed to be some kind of a firewall set up? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am not going to take up three minutes. Look, we can get way bigger bang for our buck and reduce the cost of energy in small communities by not going ahead with this and putting in space heating that relies on wood pallets, biomass, small-scale power energy retrofits. We can get way bigger bang for our buck than the billions of dollars this is going to cost.

I look forward to seeing what kind of business case is prepared, but this is not the way that we are going to be able to meet our Pan-Canadian Framework targets. This is not the way that we are going to lower the cost of...

Merci, Monsieur le President. The project assessment policy requires "Any technical advice and evidence provided by two boards by their 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 be critical of Cabinet direction.

My concerns were borne out by the review board in its March 29, 2018, report on the Tlicho all-season road. The board found that the so-called whole-of-government approach "has limited the ability of...