Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to table the following three documents: number one, "Many Ways to Lose a Billion - How Governments Fail to Secure a Fair Share of Natural Resource Wealth, by Don Hubert, PhD, for Publish What You Pay Canada"; "Press Release by Responsible Mining Northwest Territories - NGOs Encourage GNWT to Produce Modern Mining Legislation"; and the last document, Mr. Speaker, is "A New Shared Arctic Leadership Model, from Mary Simon, Special Representative of Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Submitted March 2017." Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Again, I would like to thank the Minister for that information. It's not clear how TerraX was able to acquire the mineral rights for the Ptarmigan Mine while it's under remediation, but this would seem to complicate these efforts, as exploration may interfere with the need to restrict access to the site. Drilling and sampling and trenching, that could disturb tailings, covers from vegetation efforts and so on.

I would like to know from the Minister: does GNWT, and/or the federal government for that matter, withdraw the mineral rights for sites that are under remediation such as the Ptarmigan...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are not on the procurement zombie. They are for the Minister of Lands. Earlier today, I spoke about the recent acquisition of the mineral rights for the abandoned Ptarmigan Mine and the problems this may cause for remediation of this site and perhaps other contaminated sites. Can the Minister of Lands tell us the current status of remediation at the Ptarmigan Mine? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I don't think I actually heard a response to my question. I will try it again. I think he has leapt ahead to the next one I was going to ask. I was looking for a commitment from the Minister to an independent, evidence-based review of economic rent from mining, including taxes and royalties, during the life of this Assembly. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Minister for that response. He promised to give more information on how this is dealt with in other jurisdictions in the report. It is not there. On October 19th, when he did appear before the standing committee, he promised there would be targeted public engagement on this report. Yesterday, he repeated that promise in the House. Can the Minister explain what this targeted engagement is and who is going to be consulted and when?

Merci, Monsieur le President. As I said, it was disappointing to hear the Minister say yesterday that this important work is not likely to take place during this Assembly. Why did we bother to get devolution when something as fundamental as how much money the public gets from resource extraction is not going to be reviewed? Why should Ottawa give us any more authority when we won't even exercise what we have? Needless to say, Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the mining Minister later today. Mahsi.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I just need to nail this down. The Premier mentioned that he was prepared to share drafts of the Arctic Policy Framework, NWT chapter, but he just didn't go as far as to say that the sharing is going to happen on this side of the House. Can the Minister clearly commit to sharing drafts of this NWT chapter, the Arctic Policy Framework, with Regular MLAs? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank the Premier for that. I am certainly more than a bit disappointed to hear that our government has basically rejected the work, then, that was done by the ministerial special representative.

Of course, sustainable development is more than just about resources; it's about people, things like cultural sustainability, Indigenous language and cultural revitalization, social sustainability, recognizing the roles and contributions of business and civil society. Is there going to be some incorporation of these ideas of cultural sustainability, social sustainability, into the NWT chapter...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Premier, and they are with regard to the PanTerritorial Vision on Sustainable Development and the Arctic Policy Framework. I don't recall there being any public consultations on the panterritorial vision. Can the Premier confirm that for me? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks again to the Minister for that. Unfortunately, the "what we heard" report doesn't even invite any further comments or public engagement. Glad to hear it is happening, though. It might just be advertised a little bit better. In the House yesterday, the Minister said that a review on mining revenues would not likely take place during this Assembly. It is my view ITI cannot be left in charge of this review due to its conflict of interest as mining promoter and the obvious regulatory capture that has taken place. Many other jurisdictions like Alberta have conducted independent reviews of...