Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I appreciate that the Minister is going to do that work, and I know that he is really keen to look at new sources of revenue. Certainly, this is one, and this, these rates, have not been touched in decades. I can tell the Minister that. I think, quite frankly, we are giving our water away. These rates, as I understand it, are comparatively low compared to most other jurisdictions in Canada, and this needs to be changed. This is one of the reasons we got devolution, was to try to make sure that we get a fair return for the use of our resources, and I do not think these...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I give notice that on Thursday, March 1, 2018, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on March 1, 2018, it shall be adjourned until Tuesday, March 6, 2018;

And further, that any time prior to March 6, 2018, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and...

[Microphone turned off] I think the deputy minister has confirmed my point there, that the water resource management officers do have a higher level of training than the Lands guys. That is not to say that the Lands guys are not important. They do their own thing. In any event, can I get a commitment out of the Minister that he will look at this issue of where the inspectors are parked and do their jobs, and they do it well, about maybe getting some efficiencies by reorganizing some of that and bringing the Lands folks into ENR? Can the Minister commit to come to committee with some ideas and...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to hear that. I would like to get some more details at some point.

Under the devolution agreement, there are more than 700 contaminated sites that are identified. This is a project that is probably going to start in the next two or three years. Well, I shouldn't say that, but this is an opportunity for us to build capacity locally, to do a lot of the other work that is going to come from the 700 contaminated sites, and start to build the kind of knowledge economy that my colleague from Yellowknife North talked about as well, where we have some expertise in...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, the water use fees, is that something that we would be looking at revising in the review of the Waters Act? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I remain concerned about this. A $50,000 cut just seems to be a convenient number for the fiscal reduction targets, so we will just leave it at that, but, once again, I do not see any real rationale for this cut because I do not think there is a reduced level of work or activity.

I want to follow up on some remarks made by my colleague the MLA from Nahendeh about moving the water inspectors to Lands. I know I had questions for the Minister of Lands about this. To me, it would make much or sense to have the Lands inspectors moved into ENR. ENR does the wildlife inspections. You do other...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister provide some detail, then, on what that work is going to be? Part of the issue here is there is this agricultural strategy implementation funding that is sprinkled across a whole bunch of departments, and I am not sure how it is being coordinated. What is this funding going to accomplish? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thanks, Mr. Chair. So I think this is the section of the department where water use fees would be found. These would be fees that are paid under water licences. Is that correct, Mr. Chair? Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So what is the total contracting budget, then, for water regulatory? If it is reduced by $50,000, what is left? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I don't want to turn this into a big debate. I started off my remarks complimenting the hard-working staff in this department; there are just not enough of them to get the job done. That is my point here. I haven't really received much to make me any more confident that anything is going to change in 2018-2019 with this department. Look, I support the work that they are trying to do. They just don't have enough money to get it done.

I don't have any further questions for the Minister on this part, other than to try to encourage him to get his department more resources to...