Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister again. I heard the word "burden" mentioned several times, and that is not what I am interested in creating. I am interested in creating transparency. This government, though, has resisted calls for creation of a lobbyist registry. In the post-devolution NWT, there is a lot more at stake, of course. If we had such a registry, we would know whose interests are being represented and have a better idea why meetings are taking place. Will the Minister take transparency and accountability to the next level and work with Regular MLAs and the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The other site that tends to sometimes keep me awake at night is Prairie Creek, and I probably don't have to tell this Minister, who is the Minister of Lands, he is going to get an Environmental Assessment Report sometime in the near future, probably from the Mackenzie Valley Review Board, about an all-weather road into the site.

The more our fingerprints are on this site, the more likely we are going to assume some of the liability. What, if anything, has our government done about the existing liabilities at the site? If I remember correctly, it is about $9 or $12 million...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that breakdown. $50,000 for travel for one person, that person is going to be spending a lot of time in the air, I guess. Is that money, then, going to be supporting other people to go to Ottawa, or does that come out of other departmental budgets or ministerial budgets? Just what is the travel money for? It just sounds like a lot of money for one person to be flying back and forth between Ottawa and Yellowknife. That may be one trip a week or something. Okay, let's find out what the money is for. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

It is great to get such a positive response from the Minister. I am happy to chat with him when we have a little bit of down time around this. In terms of listing ministerial meetings, there is a column about who the meeting was held with. Sometimes names of individuals are mentioned; other times, an organization only. There seems to be room for improvement and better consistency. Is the Minister prepared to review this aspect of the meeting registry and work with Regular MLAs to improve the registry itself?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, progress is not as quick as I would like it, either, and, I think, as required in our mandate, but I will move on to a couple of more problematic sites. The first one is Cantung. Have we finally been able to get rid of the lease for the surface of the Cantung site? I know I have asked numerous times about this, and every time, it seems to be a little bit closer, but has it actually been transferred back to the federal government? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do not have anything further on this part of the budget. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am glad to hear that. I know that we have a circuit rider program for water treatment training and so on, and if we need one on the Finance side, that would be a good use of money, I think, to make sure that the money flows properly. I don't have to tell the department this; they know this stuff, but I appreciate their efforts on improving the reporting. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur Ie President. This government was committed to beign more transparent and accountable. One of the elements of this accountability is the public engagement and transparency portal, which includes a registry showing the meetings of Cabinet Ministers with a variety of outside individuals and organizations. There are a lot of entries in these listings giving dates, times, and names. You can deduce a lot about the priorities and interests that appear to influence our Cabinet. In the end, the lack of real information on the subjects of meetings doesn't do a lot to create transparency...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to turn to the securities coordination line item on page 332, I believe it is. In the mains, it is shown as $915,000 for 2018-2019. When I go back into the business plan, which is publicly available, it shows that item as $885,000 on page -- well, it is not numbered. It is in schedule 2 of the Department of Land's business plan. Can someone explain the discrepancy here? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, funding guidelines, is that something, then, that the Minister is prepared to provide as, I do not know, a draft document to Regular MLAs so that we can have a look at that, or perhaps even the public, so that we can make this sort of process more transparent and accountable? Thanks, Mr. Chair.