Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. Of course it's question period; we don't actually expect to get answers here but, you know, I asked whether there had been any assessment of other conservation values. The Minister didn't respond. There are authorities and plans in the reindeer reserve area, including the Gwich'in land use plan and Inuvialuit community conservation plans.

Can the Minister tell us whether the reductions in the land withdrawal are in compliance and consistent with these plans and whether the Gwich'in Land Use Planning Board and the Inuvialuit Joint Secretariat were consulted? Merci...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Lands. I outlined some concerns with the process of significantly reducing the size of the land withdrawal for the reindeer grazing reserve. I fully understand that there was a consultation with Inuvialuit and Gwich'in, but there doesn't seem to have been any opportunity for the general public to comment.

So can the Minister explain why that land withdrawal reduction took place and tell us what public engagement also happened? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks. I have nothing further on this activity, and I want to thank the Minister and staff. Thank you.

Okay, thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess I would hope that the housing corp uses these plans as well in developing its own capital requirements. But I want to move on to apprenticeships.

And I just would like to get some assurance that the housing corp actually builds in apprenticeship requirements in any contracts that it issues. So if the Minister can tell me that that is the case in their practice, I'd be a lot happier. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess I have a habit of trying to ask too many questions at the same time. Can the Minister tell us how many were completed in the last financial year and how many are anticipated to be completed in 20232024? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. Committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 81319(2), 20232024 Main Estimates, Housing Northwest Territories. Mahsi, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. By June 2024, a lot of the work is already going to be done and then the plan will actually kind of be almost meaningless. But, you know, I've raised the repeated failure of our government to prevent public liabilities and I'm not aware of any new legislative regulatory policy work to prevent this from happening again and again. I called on the Auditor General of Canada to examine these devolution failures.

Can the Minister tell us whether there will be any new legislative regulatory or policy work to prevent public...

Merci, Monsieur le President. That doesn't really surprise me. It appears the entire operation is being handled out of Alberta. No jobs, no contracting. The government that actually said no to an Indigenous government that wanted to do the work? That's pretty bad for a government that says it wants to support a remediation economy and then the work goes elsewhere. So can the Minister tell us how the work at Cameron Hills is supporting the remediation economy of the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Of course they didn't talk to the Gwich'in Land Use Planning Board, but that's okay.

Now that the land withdrawal has been significantly reduced, our government appears to have completed the work of the Conservatives in 2014 to open up this area for oil and gas. So can the Minister tell us when these areas slashed from the land withdrawal will be made available for oil and gas development and calls for expression of interest? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Of course, he managed to forget that there was no public engagement. But presumably the land withdrawal for reindeer grazing offered some conservation value to other species in the area, including migratory waterfowl, bears, and perhaps others.

Can the Minister tell us whether his department researched the conservation value of the land withdrawal for other species before deciding to drastically reduce its size and can he share any such assessment with the public? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.