Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that because I know one site, in Yellowknife, I'm going to direct his way, probably right at the end of this day. In my statement, though, I also said that the only mention of the public in this document is as a recipient of some sort of vague notice that a site is found to be contaminated. There's no role for the public in the remediation process, nothing about whether any of the information or decisions are public. So can the Minister explain this failure to include any role for the public in the remediation process as set out in...

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I guess this is one of the areas that I highlighted in some of my earlier remarks. You know, we do need an action plan to help implement the declaration. Section 8 sets out the membership of the action plan committee. And, you know, 8(2) says the action plan committee must be comprised of members appointed by Indigenous governments and the Government of the Northwest Territories. So can the Minister speak to why there's no role for Regular MLAs with regard to the action plan committee? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I guess I have a number of questions here. The first one is I distinctly remember the Minister at the clausebyclause hearing saying something along the lines of, you know, if I had to start over again I would have done this very differently, and I think we should just go back and I think it should be reported as not ready, basically so. He was encouraging committee to not proceed with the bill. So I'd like to know why we're here tonight. What happened between the Minister saying those words and why are we here? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change on the environmental guideline for contaminated site remediation. I mentioned in my statement that there's no specific legislative authority sited in the document. The most logical would be the Environmental Protection Act. But can the Minister tell us whether this guideline is intended to be legally binding and enforceable? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, thanks for that confirmation. I do want to thank the committee for its work. You know, and there's some good features in here. Don't anybody characterize me as trying to stop or oppose this. The action plan is a good idea.

The idea of doing a review, the shared decisionmaking agreementsinprinciple, all good things, and certainly consistent with the declaration. The issue is none of that was going to be public. Absolutely nothing. No public information about it, no opportunity for public engagement. I just one of the most frustrating things I found, certainly in this Assembly, is I want...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I just find it a little bit ironic that standing committee will get notice now of an agreement being negotiated and then there doesn't seem to be any mechanism or way to have any input into that or oversight, dare I say, or ability to comment, ability to work together, other than at the whim of a Minister. And because I don't I'm not sure where we're going with all this stuff. I'm not afraid of it. I agree with it. I support it.

But I think if we're going to do constitutional development, you should come at it with that perspective and that kind of mindset. And in...

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I participated in the review of the bill. And I want to say I support the bill, except for the name change. And the other items in here, though, are good items that are covered here. They are in response to three independent reviews that were done of BDIC. And if I get the dates right, 2013, 2014, 20 I don't know 16 or something, 2018. Anyways, that part of the bill, I don't have any problems with, and I think they're helpful changes that will allow BDIC to do more of what it can and should be doing.

The name change, though, very problematic. And look, I want BDIC...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And the Minister has confirmed that the only specific role in here is about getting notice about authorization for a Cabinet Minister to go off and negotiate a shared decisionmaking agreement. But, you know, we're supposed to be a consensus government system, and this is not any regular kind of bill. This is a bill to implement Indigenous rights and has the potential to very significantly change the way the Legislative Assembly operates, the way the legislative agenda's formulated, what happens in committees.

And to exclude Regular MLAs from...

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Look, I've already said that I agree in principle with this, and I will take issue with the Premier's comments. This is not about me trying to exclude Indigenous governments from getting to shared decisionmaking agreements. This is about trying to find out how Regular MLAs can have a say in agreements before they're finalized. And it's about MLAs doing their job. I'm just not prepared to give Cabinet a bank cheque, I guess. So that's what I think this is about. But in any event, Madam Chair, I do want to move to a motion if I could.