Kevin O'Reilly

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Premier for the commitment for briefing to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, presumably. The Premier did mention that there's going to be consultations taking place over the summer for Northwest Territories climate change strategy, and I believe there's also a greenhouse gas strategy renewal that's to take place this summer. How is that work that the Northwest Territories government going to do over the summer? How is that going to feed into federal/provincial/territorial climate change measures including carbon pricing...

Thank you.

It's clear that carbon pricing is an indispensable element of any strategy to reduce carbon emissions and that the federal government could still impose carbon pricing if agreement can't be reached. The closing accord promised that measures could be adapted to the realities or should be adapted “to the realities of Canada's Indigenous peoples in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions,” end of quote. Is the Premier prepared to move on achieving a sensible and sensitive carbon pricing regime for the Northwest Territories?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that information. My other questions are I believe somewhere in this list of contributions there may be money for Dechinta and College nordique. Can the Minister confirm that? Can the Minister also tell us whether there has been any changes in the funding these two organizations received last year as compared to them this year? Thanks Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The previous speakers stole most of my thunder, but I think there might have been a couple of names that he did miss. I believe Dr. Erin Freeland Ballantyne's in the audience. She's the dean of unbiased activities, research and innovation, Dechinta Bush University. I believe Barbara Ann Blancho of Colville Lake is also in the gallery. Greetings to all the folks here from Dechinta, especially the grads on your important achievement. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do want to thank our witnesses. I was hoping to hear that. That's something I will be watching for closely, and there might even be some folks in the gallery that are watching or will be listening as well. But I appreciate the efforts of the Minister and I look forward to working with him on those pieces of legislation. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The past six months have brought international and federal/ provincial/territorial developments in the fight against climate change. After almost a decade of inaction, our federal government is finally taking its first steps on climate change. In our federation, participation and cooperation of provinces and territories is also required. At the December COP, climate change conference in Paris, our federal government made ambitious commitments for renewed action on climate change. GNWT representatives at COP21 met with the Nunavut and Yukon delegations to discuss a pan...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Like I said earlier, it's not always clear to me where we are supposed to ask questions, given the way that the mains have been put together, but I see that there is a policy legislation and communications line item here for corporate management. Can our witnesses explain what sort of legislative initiatives the department is looking at bringing forward in the next year or two? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, the questions just asked by my colleague made the case for some information I'd asked for earlier in the week. I'd asked our Minister of Finance if we could get a table that shows the changes that are going to happen throughout the budget. If we can get that table that sort of shows where those reductions are the result of actual program reductions versus sunsetting and whether those jobs are filled or not for each of the communities and regions in the Northwest Territories, that would be really helpful in understanding this.

I could probably start to put together a table, something...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I heard a mouse in the Chamber squeaking something from over there.

---Laughter

I think the Minister wants to take an early weekend, but I think this is the place where I should be asking questions about staffing appeals. What I find difficult in this process is we've already been through the business plans, there has been some really good discussion back and forth, and then we get a completely different document that I guess is not really as detailed or well laid out as the business plans, but we're trying to probe and get some issues onto the table. It's not...