Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm just wondering if the Minister might like to have a conversation with himself about switching this over to the Lands department.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask the Minister: when is the RFP going to go out for the Men's Healing program? The reason I'm asking that is I'm getting quite concerned about how late this is getting and whether there's going to be a gap in service. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think I am getting a little bit more information. We will spend $85 million on this fibre link and it is going to end in Inuvik and that is it? We are not going to take advantage of having the fibre link? We are not going to have this NWT Centre for Geomatics? We have one guy now who is going to fly a drone around, that is great, but I just don't sense there is any urgency. I think we are going to miss an opportunity if we have to wait until 2021 for an investment to pull together these initiatives. Can't we do this any quicker or sooner? This is clearly an area that we...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So if someone needs Legal Aid service and they're in Inuvik or Tuktoyaktuk, how do they actually get it, then? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

1996.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I would like to ask for a plain-language answer as to what is happening with the NWT Centre for Geomatics, how that relates to the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Project and then this Northern Canadian Centre of Excellence for Remote Sensing. What is the relationship between these three initiatives, and are we making wise investments with the money that is in the Lands budget for any of this work? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In an effort to increase access to justice here, I think this would result in a reduction of $102,000. Is that correct, Mr. Chair? Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That was a very detailed answer and I appreciate the deputy minister's comments. I guess, as I see it, there are two options for making sure this is a legally binding land use plan, and that is what our mandate calls for. One is to bring us under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, and Mr. Hagen mentioned the Gwich'in and the Sahtu Land Use Plans. This would be, I think, an ideal -- that is the accepted and negotiated process in those two areas. Of course the Tlicho Government would have to have some say in this, but it would seem to make some sense to bring this...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I will wade into this. Be careful what you ask for because we saw with some of the other departmental amalgamations that have been put forward that, in my humble opinion, they were not evidencebased and they are not zerobased budgeting. In any event, I think we have to be very careful.

You have separate pieces of legislation that deal with land and water, and I think that that is just a historical artifact of the last manager, which was the federal government, so you have to be very careful thinking about how you are going to merge those two responsibilities. Not to...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am glad to get that cooperative answer from the Minister. I don't have anything further. Thanks.