Kevin O'Reilly

I apologize. I didn't give the Minister much advance notice of this. This seems to be a quickly evolving situation. I'm just wondering if the Minister can tell us then how these two pilot positions were actually evaluated, and would he be prepared to share that with at least this MLA?

[English translation not provided.] Mr. Speaker, I have a number of Yellowknifers who have contacted me regarding termination of care aids working at Stanton Hospital effective March 31. Can the Minister tell us how so many care aids are currently working at Stanton, when this service started, and what sort of duties they perform? Sorry, that question would be to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I promise I won't speak for 10 minutes, which is my usual habit. This was a difficult process for us all to go through and a learning experience for us all. I do appreciate all of the work that our staff put into this document, and Cabinet put into this as well. I was probably negligent in my opening remarks not recognizing the work that Cabinet and their staff have put it into this document. I do appreciate the work that we've all put it into this.

Earlier in my remarks in consideration of this document I said that I couldn't support it as it had been brought forward. I'm...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To be fair to the Members on the other side, we wanted to give them a heads-up that there's a couple more items that we would like to bring back perhaps as early as tomorrow in Committee of the Whole for this section. They would deal with support for small business and looking at how to review the Heritage Fund Act. We'll bring those forward as motions tomorrow for the consideration of Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize Nancy Vail. She’s a constituent in Frame Lake. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What this change is all about is to I think just shift the focus a little bit, not just from developing a five-year action plan for the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program, but supporting the program as a whole. It's part 6 of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. This was part of the integrated resource management system that was negotiated through constitutionally entrenched land claims agreements to make sure that we understand what the health of our ecosystems is, but also to look at how the different components of that integrated environmental management...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't think I have anything further to add at this point. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The important addition here is the words at the end to focus some attention on not just managing contaminated sites, but actually preventing them from happening in the first place. That’s really the purpose of financial security system. Earlier today in my Member’s statement and through questions, I raised a number of issues around the importance of this, and what happens if we don't manage our land and water carefully. We can incur huge liabilities that can cripple us financially. We don't have nearly the room of the federal government to absorb those sorts of costs, so...

Mr. Chair, I am going to be voting against this amendment. As a resident of Yellowknife, I have travelled a number of the highways in various seasons for work purposes, holidays, and so on, and certainly, our family has a much better piece of mind travelling along those roads and seeing emergency shelters, knowing that if we ever had to use them, they were actually there and available. It's not just folks from the small communities, but even for people from Yellowknife, it's created, I think, a better sense of safety and peace of mind knowing that those sort of facilities are there, so I am...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a motion I'd like to make to amend a document. I move Tabled Document 1-18(2), Proposed Mandate of Government of Northwest Territories 2016-2019, be amended on page 11 by deleting the words “We will ensure that residents are informed about the territories' resource development options, including the potential benefits and risks associated with different options” and inserting the words “We will ensure that residents have meaningful opportunities to participate in the assessment of potential benefits and risks associated with resource development, including...