Kevin O'Reilly

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Now that the Finance Minister has revealed the contents of his budget, our Regular MLAs, media, and the public at large may be wondering what the past 12 months of austerity messaging of gloom and doom have been all about. For the past year, this government has barely made a public statement that wasn't prefaced with a reminder that this government must find money, now set at $150 million, through cuts or more revenues. The public and our civil service have lived in anxiety at the prospect of deep cuts. Businesses, investors, and homeowners have been warned of lean times...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just had one follow-up that I wanted to ask the Minister of Finance. Part of the issue is that we do a lot of work behind the scenes as Regular MLAs and with the Ministers on the departmental budgets through the business plans. I agreed with the Minister, that a lot of the information that I asked about earlier had been provided to this Member and other regular MLAs, but I'm hoping that he could table the information about the multiplier for impacts into the private sector, the potential lost revenues to the government, and where the job cuts are actually going to...

I don't think I actually got an answer on the question about multipliers. But I also want to ask the Minister what this government has predicted from the job cuts in terms of losses to personal income tax, payroll, and other taxes and then the territorial transfer payments.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I have questions for the Minister of Finance. First off, I would like to learn more, and the public deserves to know, how the government has studied and analyzed the impacts of the 58 GNWT job cuts in the budget, including the impacts on the territorial economy as a whole. In planning these cuts, did the government analyze how these job losses would take money out of the economy and our tax and transfer revenues and pursue cuts that were proven to have the least negative impact in these areas? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Now we'll turn to debating the budget and the public will have the opportunity to see where and how hard the axe has fallen and where we'll be devoting public funds to pursue opportunities. Over the coming days, I'll have questions for the Ministers on their vision for our economy, environment and society, and how a more forthright budgetary dialogue could improve cooperative development of tomorrow's NWT. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for his response. It is helpful to tell committee but I would prefer that he actually table that information in the House. Lastly, I want to ask about the job losses and if the Minister would be willing to table in this House a list of the communities where the cuts will be made and how many jobs will actually be lost in each community. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Lands.

Regarding the Prairie Creek Mine site, could the Minister inform me when the most recent third-party assessment of environmental liabilities was made, and:

Who conducted it?

What was the scope of this assessment (that is, what was included in the assessment)?

What was the amount of the liabilities estimated to exist?

Can the Minister table this report?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and I have another written question if I may?

I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Can the Minister tell us when we might expect to see a legislative proposal for the Territorial Parks Act?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker and my apologies to the Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources that I didn't give him a heads-up, but I’d like to ask him some questions about Thaidene Nene, if I may. I think these are sweetheart questions, so I think they are going to be pretty easy for him to answer.

---Laughter.

There's a rather large land withdrawal that has been set aside for this area and some of it dates back to 1970, and I think that's a good thing, but as I understand, that land withdrawal is going to expire on March 31 of this year. Is the department prepared to extend the land withdrawal...

I appreciate the Minister's response and his work with his earpiece as well, but the benefits of participant funding are well documented and they include building confidence in our environmental management system and creating buy-in for our residents while considering projects. I'm wondering if the Minister can just provide a little bit more information about what specifically the GNWT is prepared to do to push this issue with the federal government. I understand he mentioned letters that have been sent in the past, but is this something he'd be prepared to take up with the new Minister of...