Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I think I heard him almost say that he was going to try to meet with the president of Dominion Diamond about this. You know, this is a Minister who is very interested in promoting mining and all of the benefits that it can bring. We have these jobs now in the Northwest Territories. We need our government and Cabinet to actually step up to the plate and do something to protect them, so what is Cabinet's position on this issue, and what is the Minister prepared to do about it?

I would like to thank the Minister for that information. I note that, in the socio-economic agreement covering this project, it says, "Selection, hiring, promoting transferring, dismissing, or otherwise disciplining of all of its employees for the jobs on the project shall be within the sole discretion of Dominion Diamond." It is kind of disappointing to me that we don't really have any hooks on this and that they may not even be required to provide notice to us. Does our government have any authority or power to protect these union jobs that are largely held by long-time and Indigenous NWT...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge a constituent, Ryan Fequet, for receiving the 2018 Outstanding Volunteer Award in the Individual Category.

Since 2007, Ryan has served on the boards of NWT Soccer, Canada Soccer, the Yellowknife Adult Soccer League, Sport North, Yellowknife Slopitch, Folk on the Rocks, and the Ravenscourt Condo Board. He is estimated to have contributed 6,800 hours of volunteer service. That is two hours of volunteering a day for 10 years. We all owe Ryan a big thank you.

Please join me in saluting this incredible contributor to the quality...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I was very glad to see that the Minister, in his opening remarks, referred to the extensive discussions that have taken place between the City of Yellowknife and the Department of Justice over this bill. This is something that was talked about when I was on city council between 1997 and 2006. This has taken over 12 years to finally end up here in the Legislative Assembly. I don't understand why there is such a backlog of these sorts of things to help our local governments. I am glad that it is here, but we have to start to address the other backlogs that are still there. I...

I would like to thank the Minister for that, but how is he going to do it? Is the Minister prepared to reach out and actually talk to Dominion Diamond about these layoffs and stop them?

Merci, Monsieur le President. Last week I tabled a news release from the Tlicho government expressing concern over recent moves by Dominion Diamond to lay off 150 unionized employees at the Ekati Mine and replace them with contract miners. I'm not aware of any public statements or positions taken by our government to retain these jobs. My question is for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment: has our government received any official notice or communications from Dominion Diamond about these layoffs at Ekati of the unionized employees; and if so, can the Minister provide details on...

Merci, Monsieur Ie President. The Standing Committee on Economic Development and the Environment met in Norman Wells May 8th to the 10th, my first visit in about 25 years.

We met with the Sahtu Secretariat Inc. and the Norman Wells Land Corporation. I learned a lot about the implementation of the Sahtu Agreement. We met with the Norman Wells Chamber of Commerce. While there is a strong interest in the Mackenzie Valley highway, people are also interested in economic diversification, particularly tourism and what the Doi T'oh Territorial Park and Canol Heritage Trail can bring to the region.

We...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to table the following document, "Tlicho Leadership Supports Tlicho Workers in Potential Layoff," dated May 24, 2018. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the Minister for that new information. Earlier today, I referred to the incomplete and unfunded work on the Bathurst caribou herd, that there is no land use planned for this region. As the lead Minister on this project, can the Minister explain to the public how Cabinet applies the Land Use and Sustainability Framework to the Slave Geological Province road?

Merci, Monsieur le President. While we are on the subject of roads, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure, who is the proponent for the Slave Geological Province Road. A business case for the project has not been completed. There is no independent cost-benefit analysis, either. The federal government has denied funding in our most recent application. Can the Minister tell us what is the status of this project? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.