Kevin O'Reilly

Mahsi, Monsieur le President. Today I have a page who is serving in the House, Simone Bruce-Cato from St. Patrick School, and she's a constituent of mine. I want to thank all the pages for the hard work in this session; it hasn't been easy, but much appreciated. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thanks, again to the Minister for repeating the openness of the process that we are about to embark on, but I am looking for some direction. What is this government actually going to do? I am not hearing it. I will keep pushing because I have some ideas. Like the honourable Member from Hay River North, I have some ideas I would like to share, and I want to see the Minister respond to these sorts of ideas.

With the devolution, our government now has the authority over royalties paid by mining companies. I am sure the Minister, along with his Cabinet colleagues, wants to make...

I appreciate the response from the Minister. I will help him out with what the MVRMA is all about. In my statement, I highlighted several issues that I think should be considered during the drafting of a Mineral Resources Act. I would like to know whether the Minister and his department intend to seek specific exemptions or exceptions for mining activities now regulated under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act? Are we going to loosen up or weaken our environmental regime to allow mining to go ahead?

Merci, Mr. Speaker. Following the Minister's statement about mining, our government is committed to the development of a Mineral Resources Act as part of our mandate.

A request for qualifications was issued for a consultant to develop and carry out a public engagement process resulting in a legislative proposal for this work. It closes on March 17th. The objective is the development of a world-class legislative framework for mining that:

Encourages sufficient mineral exploration and production operations;

Protects the land, water, and natural resources of the NWT;

Modernizes the legislative...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I was just wondering: our supplementary reserve for operations, what does that stand at now, and how will this bill affect that reserve? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate the response from the Minister. I think the first time he responded he said that there wasn't going to be any specific exceptions. The next time he is a little bit vaguer. There have been several cases of conflicting land uses in the NWT and elsewhere that highlight the problem with the free entry system. Recently, the BC Mines Minister had the ground under his home staked. There have been problems with staking of claims covering the Inuvik gravel supply and so on. The NWT Association of Communities has called for local governments to have the authority to prohibit mineral staking...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Can the Minister highlight what he and his department seek to achieve through a Mineral Resources Act? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks. That is okay. Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur le President. It was almost a month ago that I gave my reply to the budget address. So what has changed since then in terms of the 2017-18 budget now that we have an Appropriation Bill in front of us? I will review of the budget process, the offer from Cabinet, the amended budget, and draw some conclusions.

The budget process. Let no one be fooled, the reduction targets are driving this budget in an effort to build larger surpluses to spend on infrastructure projects or roads to resources. That has been Cabinet's fiscal and economic development strategy since the mandate was...

Thank you to the Premier. I think he actually answered this question rather than the last one, so maybe I will just take another try at it here. Last week, in the presentation to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, the Premier mentioned that there was a modelling report that has been prepared on carbon pricing, and he offered to share that with committee, but he didn’t give a date for that. Can the Premier tell me whether he is prepared to table the report in this House during the current session, and if not, why not?