Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So is it going to happen in 201718? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just want to return briefly to this issue of the reduced inspection budget. Why I am so passionate about this is because of a promise our government made about how we were going to do things better than the federal government. I think with reduced inspections, we are going to have increased risk of some of these sites becoming -- we are pretty good at generating abandoned, contaminated sites here in the Northwest Territories. We have a terrible track record of that under the federal government. We are now responsible for that. If we are carrying out inspections on these...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So you know this is very murky again. So what kind of oversight or accountability then is there to the Minister of Justice when it comes to the OROGO budget? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to speak today about protecting NWT consumers from false advertising and ensuring the integrity of our tourism products and branding for our visitors.

Most people remember the high-profile case of pickerel offered at a local restaurant which was actually a fish from Kazakhstan called Zander. The real news turned out to be the lack of protection for our consumers through no penalties under our NWT Consumer Protection Act. There does not appear to be any power to lay charges or seek fines. Municipal and Community Affairs, which administers the legislation, has...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Good luck with that. I will just move on to the next issue, which, of course, is one of my favourites, the closure of the law library. I did see, I believe at some point, a massive report, whereby people must have spent literally weeks huddled in a room somewhere, figuring out where all of the materials were going to be disposed of and where they were going to end up. Where are we at with this? I think it was supposed to be a research centre. Is it actually open now, in the courthouse? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Sure, if the Minister wants to supply that information to support what he said earlier about less activity out there, great. Otherwise, I have a little bit of difficulty. There is no evidence of that, what the Minister has presented.

In any event, let's move on. Let's talk a little bit about Snap Lake and diamond mines. I have been to Snap Lake once. This is a property that is quite highrisk from an environmental perspective and did exceed water licence limits in terms of its discharge into Snap Lake. They had to apply for a water licence amendment, I think maybe once, maybe...

I am not Mr. Goldney.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I believe this is the section of the Justice budget where the department is trying to reduce court circuit costs, so I am just wondering how those discussions were going with the judiciary? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. I will do a cut and paste from Hansard.

---Laughter

Thanks, Mr. Chair. It's just a very odd fit that OROGO comes under the Social Development Committee. In any event, maybe the Minister can just refresh my memory about the independence of OROGO when it comes to them developing their own budget. Were they asked to meet certain fiscal reduction targets that Cabinet had set? What sort of financial independence does this organization really have? Thanks, Mr. Chair.