Kevin O'Reilly

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is what I thought I was going to hear.

We received funding under the devolution agreement, then, from the federal government to actually help us pay for this. This was part of the devolution agreement, so we are using the funds that we got to help pay for the board. Is that correct? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Earlier today I discussed the draft NWT Energy Strategy. Public comments closed on the draft on January 3, 2018. We do not have a "what we heard" report, and no indication of what the next steps are going to be. Can the Minister of Infrastructure tell us what the next steps are for the NWT Energy Strategy and the target dates for these steps? Masi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess we'd just have to see how this rolls out. On the same page in the business plan, there's this ominous line that reads, "ENR to return to Financial Management Board with alternate reductions of $500,000 in each of 2018-2019 and 2019-2020." That seems to have been deferred back by a year. Can someone tell me what that is all about? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. $290,000. I don't know what the square kilometres for our portion of that network of area are, but that does not sound like a lot of money to start coordinated management planning and so on. I know Parks Canada spends significantly more for similar areas or national parks in the NWT. I am just going to leave that with the Minister, but when can he provide committee with a costed plan moving forward for the management of the territorial portion of Thaidene Nene? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. We still do not have a Bathurst caribou range plan, and not one square centimetre of habitat has been set aside or protected in any way for this herd. So far the harvesters have, and the Minister talked about this, made extraordinary efforts, and they have restricted their harvesting now for the last three or four winters. The harvesters are doing their part. Our government is not doing our part on protecting the habitat. When are we going to see a completed range plan that's going to start to look at habitat protection, more than just caribou...

Merci, Monsieur le President. One of the commitments made in the mandate of the 18th Assembly was to create a Northwest Territories Energy Strategy because the previous one expired in 2015. A draft NWT Energy Strategy was finally released to the public on September 25, 2017. It would be fair to say that very few of the standing committee's comments were incorporated into the draft.

The strategy proposes a confusing array of energy targets as follows:

A 25 per cent reduction of GHG emissions from electricity generation;

A 10 per cent reduction of GHG emissions from road vehicles;

A 40 per cent...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If we have to go and contract additional time on an as-required basis, presumably that would be a higher per-hour rate. Is that true? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Anybody who has walked downtown in Yellowknife these days knows how active the tourist sector is. We have tourists walking in our neighbourhood now. I live on Forrest Drive, and they are walking in the neighbourhood, looking for things to do. We have got to find a better way to provide services for the tourists that do come here. We want to make sure that they are made welcome and that they have more activities to do than just walking around in neighbourhoods, which is fine if they want to learn about Yellowknife, but I am sure we can do a lot better. Thanks, Mr. Chair. That...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Perfect. The Minister is actually anticipating all my questions. The number for Growing Forward on page 216, the $488,000, is that GNWT's contribution towards Growing Forward, or does some of that include federal money and how much? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks. I appreciate the Minister undertaking that commitment. I want to turn to page 221. It shows that there is a contribution ongoing to the NWT Chamber of Mines, $30,000. It looks like it is some kind of a core funding. Can the Minister comment on this? Thanks, Mr. Chair.