Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. My statement earlier today focused on the need to begin planning and budgeting for a new permanent home for the new Northern Frontier Visitors Centre. Does the Minister of tourism agree that it is inequitable and obviously unsustainable to expect the Northern Frontier Visitors Association to foot the cost of a Yellowknife visitor centre when centres in Inuvik, Dawson, and at the border are fully funded by GNWT? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. There has been a lot of shock and uncertainty over the closure of the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre here in Yellowknife. I firmly believe this could have been avoided through adequate and equitable support from our government. We have been without a visitors centre for 10 days now. A temporary home has been found, until summer’s end, at the museum. Now we need to concentrate on a longer-term location to support the large, growing, and sustainable tourism sector in Yellowknife.

Aurora tourism has soared from a $6-million industry in 2010 to $40 million in 2015...

Merci, Monsieur le President. On March 8th our government issued the media release "GNWT Extends Key Mineral Exploration Support Program." The release describes the extension of the Work Credit Program, which sets the value of exploration work required to keep mineral claims in good standing. Claim holders are now credited $1.50 for every eligible dollar spent. The release says the program originally "arose from recommendations made by the Mineral Industry Advisory Board."

I fully recognize that mining is important here, so we want to protect the integrity of our decision-making on this section...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. During the course of the committee's work, we had some submissions that mentioned that we should be looking at our conflict of interest provisions and make sure that they reflect best practices, particularly as a result of our government assuming new legislative authority and management responsibility over lands and resources. In line with that new responsibility, it does seem reasonable, and it was certainly reasonable in the view of the committee, that we should also take a look at our accountability as a government, and thus you have the recommendation before you. I...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm not going to drone on too long about this, but the committee looked at how enforcement of codes of conduct are dealt with in a number of other jurisdictions across the Commonwealth as well as in Canada; certainly it seems to be best practice that enforcement of codes of conduct is located within an independent party, and we already have such a party in the Conflict of Interest Commissioner who deals with pecuniary and financial matters. In some other jurisdictions, that individual also has the ability to receive complaints, carry out investigations, and make...

Merci, Mr. Speaker. Well, that certainly comes as a surprise. I look forward to trying to work with the Minister moving forward on this, and hopefully he will work with the standing committee, as well. We do have another model at hand in the Yukon, where there is a more transparent and accountable way of receiving advice from the mining industry. Is the Minister prepared to review how this happens in the Yukon and elsewhere, to ensure that the advice he may receive from such a board is more inclusive of other interests, free of potential conflicts of interest, and publicly report it? Merci, Mr...

Thanks to the Minister for that. How we learned about it has become a pattern through news releases, but the news release boasts about the 2015-17 implementation period for the Work Credit Program, how it is going to save exploration companies $725,000. That is money that should have been spent in the Northwest Territories to generate more activity. Why would the Minister extend this program that saves companies money that should have been spent in the Northwest Territories, to the benefit of our citizens?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the elder who was here earlier who gave our opening prayer, Mary Louise Drygeese. She made my lovely vest and I'm very proud to wear it in this House. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The only thing I would like to say is I want to thank the committee again for all the work that was done, our staff that helped us get us to this point very ably, and I do want to thank all the Members for their passionate discussion yesterday. I think it was useful to have those matters discussed in public; it wasn't an easy discussion. I know that we will continue to work together on all of those issues as MLAs in this House. So once again, thanks to everybody for their thoughtful submissions yesterday. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this Assembly recommend that the conflict of interest provisions of the Legislative Assembly and the Executive Council Act and other relevant legislation policy be the subject of a public review before the end of the 18th Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.