Kevin O'Reilly

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...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Look, Deger Energy didn't go ahead for a bunch of reasons, but one of the key ones was there was no buyer, no buyers identified at the end of the day. We still don't have any buyers either north of the lake or south of the lake. I just don't understand why this is being pursued.

If we use the money that we are trying to put into this project for almost anything else, whether it is energy retrofits in housing, small energy projects in smaller communities, we would get way more value for our money, I think. I am very interested in...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the long answer from the Minister. Are we going to have any discussion about this on the tour on Friday? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I am also concerned about the large lapses in funding for the Stanton Renewal Project and the Extended Care Project, which isn't going to be in the old Stanton hospital. Those two projects are in my riding. If I look at the total of them, it is over $40 million, which is almost a quarter of the total supplementary appropriation that the Cabinet is seeking at this point. Sorry, they're carry-overs, not lapses.

We had some explanation of what is happening with the Stanton Renewal Project, but can I get some explanation of what is happening with the Extended Care Project...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I appreciate the commitment of the Minister to provide the information about our procurement capacity, given the changes that have happened within the Department of Infrastructure over the last couple of years. I guess I also want to thank the Minister and his staff. We only had a briefing on these two supplementary appropriation bills this morning, and we got an email about two hours ago with seven briefing notes attached to it, with additional information that we requested, and I am concerned about the amount of time that we be had to actually look at that information...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that information from the Minister. Is any of this money being used to replant areas that were already planted once after forests were harvested? If so, doesn't that point to the need to improve our reforestation regulation? Thanks, Mr. Chair.