Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. Can I assume, then, that we've actually got the money in the bank for this? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. So on page 9, the compensation and benefits is increasing by about, it looks like almost $600,000. Can I have someone explain to me what that increase consists of? Thanks.

Okay, thanks, Madam Chair. I think we'll have to put that one in the hopper.

So I understand, like lands has lands use inspectors; water has some water inspectors. Is everybody going to be like one happy family now and crossappointed, or how is all of this inspection stuff going to happen? Thanks, Madam Chair. And be coordinated. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Yeah, thanks for that. Look, I think I understand a little bit of the complexity of all this stuff. But if we're submitting stuff, why can't we post that to an ENR web page and let the public know what we're doing. The other guys, they can do whatever they want; they can keep secrets; they can, you know, have misunderstandings about what information they share with us. But why can't we post the submissions, these peer reviews that are being done, on an ENR web page so the public and Indigenous governments know what we're doing? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Okay, thanks, Madam Chair. Any sense of timing on this? I think the last time I raised it with the Minister it was like kind of going to be sometime late last year that there might be something happening, and here we are about five or six months later and I don't think anything's happened. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to speak to the principle of the bill. This is probably one of the shortest bills this Assembly will ever deal with, but I think it's important that the public and media understand what this bill is all about. And I believe that the Member for Thebacha has explained it probably much better than I'm going to try to do right now. But what this is really to do is to replace the current way of calculating MLA's indemnity, or salaries, office holders, and allowances. Right now those are changed according to the consumer price index as of April 1st each year...

Okay, thanks. And are those you know, we get these letters about interfund transfers from some Ministers usually kind of on the capital side, if I remember this correctly. So is there any kind of heads up to Regular MLAs about when it's on the O and M side, and how does the Minister tend to communicate that to the Regular MLAs? And I'm not saying every time you shift a dollar around, but having some kind of plan or, you know, when you figured it out, some communications with us, I think that would be helpful. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks for that. Yeah, and I look forward to the letters the Minister's going to table. But I guess I want to go back to, you know, where we started with some of this stuff, and this was the move on the part of maybe the Alberta and federal governments to have some sort of control discharge from these humongous tailings ponds. And, look, I'd rather have a controlled discharge if the water's treated properly than this kind of stuff happening because this kind of stuff is going to happen; it's going to continue to happen until it's inevitable. So where are we at with this process to look at...

Yeah, okay, thanks for that. Yeah, I have a funny feeling that this is going to become one of the key issues that's part of the regional study. So I don't think I have anything else. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I just don't really understand why the work with the Intergovernmental Council can happen in parallel with public engagement. This department and others just seem to leave the public engagement to the very end of the process. By then all the important decisions are made; it's too late.

So, you know, can the Minister tell us if there is actually going to be any meaningful public engagement on the development of the Public Land Act regulations including the forms of acceptable financial security? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.