Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Lands, who seems to have primary responsibility for the former Cameron Hills solid gas field.

Can the Minister tell us when the abandonment agreement with Environmental Liabilities Management Incorporated, or ELM, was signed and the value of that work or contract? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. It's time for another statement on the millions of dollars of preventable liabilities our government has taken on from our mismanagement of the Cameron Hills gas field once owned by Strategic Oil and Gas. Production stopped in February 2011, and it finally went into receivership in 2020. We accepted this site under the Devolution Agreement without full financial security and without an approved closure plan. Nothing was done to prevent the site from becoming a public liability. The final revisions to the fourth version of the closure and reclamation plan were...

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Well, that seems to be one of the hottest potatoes here is this problem with home insurance. I raised it with the Department of Finance. I even made suggestions about looking at the Government of Saskatchewan insurance program because they actually provide insurance outside of Saskatchewan for homeowners in some of the provinces but nobody seems to want to actually do anything about this. And the reason I guess why I raised it is in the activity description, homeownership programs are mentioned here but I guess I'm not going to get any answers from the Minister on...

Okay, thanks. Does the Minister have any information that she can make public on wait times, by community, for public housing? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Okay. Is there a timeframe for the Minister to get back to us, and can that information be made public? Look, I'm just looking for some kind of a ballpark figure. Is it 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 percent, something like that? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I move that the chair rise and report progress. Mahsi.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I think we have a failure to communicate here so let me try it this way: So the closure plan says that DDMI's waiting an expression of interest from the GNWT on a path forward and a schedule for transferring the airstrip responsibilities. That's from DDMI.

So can the Minister confirm and provide this side with the information, confidentially if necessary, has Diavik asked our government to take over the airstrip or even asked our government whether we're interested in taking it over? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. In my statement earlier today, I covered two aspects of the closure of the Diavik mine, on whether GNWT was going to take over the airstrip and what role, if any, GNWT is playing with regard to transition planning for NWTbased employees. I'm going to ask my questions of the Premier because they cut across a few different departments. So can the Premier tell us whether GNWT has decided to take over the Diavik airstrip at closure? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. That's a little clearer, thank you. I understand Diavik hasn't asked us. We haven't asked them. So the issues probably still unresolved. But if we're going to take it on, we better get the money that goes with it.

So but, Mr. Speaker, I want to move on to the other issue that I raised, which is transition planning. So there's apparently 500 NWT/Nunavut workers at the site. So can the Premier tell us what, if any, role GNWT has played in the transition planning to date and whether there are any plans to do anything more substantive to assist the employees? Mahsi, Mr...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Maybe I'm a little bit not understanding here but Diavik has indicated they want to hear from our government on whether the GNWT wants to take over this airstrip. So what is the answer? Clearly Diavik will save money by not having to reclaim the airstrip and the new owner will incur liabilities and expenses related to its ongoing operations and maintenance and ultimate reclamation.

So, can the Premier tell us whether Diavik has offered to cover these liabilities and/or whether GNWT will ask for these costs as part of any...