Kevin O'Reilly

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I've been at a lot of meetings about Giant Mine over the last 30 years, and certainly whenever I've been at meetings where there have been elders from the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, they've raised this issue of an apology and compensation. They've been waiting a long time for that to happen, and unfortunately some of them are no longer with us.

How do you explain to somebody who used to be able to go to the lake and take water out of it that they actually now have to pay to get safe water delivered to their house? So why is this motion before us today? I think the Giant...

Thanks to the Minister for that update. It was very helpful. Protection of NWT caribou herds is a complex matter as there are a number of communities that have traditionally harvested herds, most migrate between the NWT and Nunavut, there are different management regimes on each side of the boundary, and very little habitat has any permanent protection. That raises the issue of whether our government has any policy or position on resource development within calving grounds. Can the Minister say whether our government has a position or policy on resource development within caribou calving...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Later today, we will be debating a motion about development in the calving grounds of one of our migratory caribou herds. The Bathurst caribou herd has plummeted from a high of 472,000 animals to 16,000. Indigenous governments have voluntarily halted harvesting, yet nothing has been done in terms of habitat protection. Can the Minister give us an update on the status of the Bathurst herd and whether there are any signs of recovery? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Midwifery: where to begin? We go back to the last Assembly in 2012, when public advocacy prompted the government to commission a Midwifery Review and Expansion Analysis Report. That report recommended options for expansion of midwifery service, including creating a territorial model based out of Yellowknife in 2015-2016, so that the full rollout could be done in 2016-2017. Mr. Speaker, that was last year.

The Minister stated in July 2015 that he was still committed to introducing midwifery services, but then there was no money; so a further study and further public...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. My colleague's questions made me think of one additional one. I spoke earlier about the $1.7 million shortfall of funding to the district education authorities. If they were fully funded for all the JK students using the formula that the department now uses, is there a commitment on the part of this government to actually make up that shortfall at any point or to change the formulae themselves? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just very briefly. Right now the Chief Electoral Officer is required to file a report following the conduct of an election. The office does have the ability to file other reports as necessary, but this would require the filing of an annual report and I think this would just increase accountability and also give the officer the ability to tell us what they're doing in any given year. I think it's a helpful addition and something that the CEO herself has recommended and I think it's a good tool to increase accountability. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just would like to respond briefly to my colleague, the honourable Member for Yellowknife North. I want to assure him that we did look at all of the options. On page 64 of the Chief Electoral Officer's report, there is a very interesting table of jurisdictions around the world and what their polling days are and also another figure showing the days that other Canadian jurisdictions use. We had all of that information available to us.

I think one of the reasons that we didn't really go with the recommendation from the Chief Electoral Officer was that having a poll on a...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Earlier, I guess, in the last session, I had asked the department to calculate the additional costs -- I shouldn't say "additional costs." What would be the additional costs if junior kindergarten was included in all the formulae that are used to help fund our district education facilities? That additional cost came to about $1.7 million. Just to be clear, that shortfall in funding for the district education authority, that is not covered in the supplementary appropriation. Is that the case, Mr. Chair? Thank you.

Just very briefly. The purpose of this motion is in response to the White Paper that the Chief Electoral Officer submitted, and that was sort of looking at election administration in the NWT in a broader sense comparing us with some other jurisdictions. The committee is not recommending acceptance of all of the recommendations of that report, but this motion is an effort to help clarify some of the roles and duties of the Chief Electoral Officer in terms of modernizing our approach to elections and his or her role into the future. I think this will provide the kind of authority that the office...

Mr. Chair, as you mentioned earlier, we are just going to work away through each of the recommendations as a motion.

The first recommendation I have: Mr. Chair, I move that the Assembly recommend that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended to establish an electoral residency requirement of six consecutive months on or before polling day. Thank you, Mr. Chair.