Robert C. McLeod

I am glad the Member mentioned the 19th Assembly coming in. One of the pieces of advice that I passed on to the department is to try to have all of the work done before the 19th Assembly comes in, and then, once the 19th Assembly comes in, my advice to them would be to take something like this and deal with it right at the onset of the 19th Assembly. We spent a lot of time at the beginning of this Assembly on our 235-item mandate. Then we had the mid-term review. I do not think we really got much going until years three and four, so my advice to the incoming 19th would be to deal with a lot of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the proposed Forest Act, the powers that have been contemplated that the officers would have are the ability to stop people when they are burning, for example, putting out campfires or other burning taking place and ask them to put out the fire, or the officer would have the authority to put out the fire themselves. Officers would also have authority to charge people with an offence that might include a fine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, this Assembly made a mandate commitment to improve food security in the Northwest Territories through the effective co-management of wildlife, including caribou. Our government is therefore taking significant steps with our co-management partners to support the recovery of our struggling barren-ground herds, including investing an additional $6.8 million over five years for conservation and recovery efforts.

The Bathurst and Bluenose-East herds have traditionally been an important food source for a number of our communities, and are...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to introduce Bill 38, Protected Areas Act. The bill sets out the processes for establishing a protected area in the Northwest Territories. The bill lays out the process to nominate the candidate area, how establishment agreements with Indigenous governments or organizations will be entered into for management of a protected area, regulation-making authorities, and prohibited and acceptable activities in a protected area.

Environment and Natural Resources has developed the bill through a partnership process with a technical working group that is comprised of...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 59, Supplementary Appropriations Act (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 2, 2019-2020, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 59, Supplementary Appropriations Act (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 2, 2019-2020, be read for the second time. Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 59, Supplementary Appropriations Act (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 2, 2019-2020, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This delay was unintended and in no way should be considered as a lowering of the government's commitment to implementing the NWT Carbon Tax. Carbon pricing will be introduced in the NWT either utilizing our own approach or having the federal backstop imposed upon us. We believe our approach has significant advantages for our businesses and residents, including in the way we have approached rebating the carbon tax on heating fuel, protecting electricity rates, and providing the cost-of-living offset benefit to all residents of the NWT.

We have reached out to the Government of Canada, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thirty-five years ago today, the Committee for Original People's Entitlement, or COPE, signed the Inuvialuit Final Agreement with the Government of Canada on behalf of the Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic. The Inuvialuit Final Agreement was the first comprehensive land claim agreement north of the 60th parallel, and only the second of its kind in Canada. In many ways, this agreement led the way for the future negotiation of land, resources, and self-government agreements in this territory, and perhaps in Canada.

The IFA was negotiated to help preserve Inuvialuit cultural...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I said before, I made some comments before, but one of the things I want to point out, one point I wanted to make, is we are trying to pass an amendment here to give us direction to do something that we are already doing. We have a respectful arrangement and collaboration with our Aboriginal partners. We have bilateral meetings with them. Whether they signed on to the intergovernmental council or not, whether they signed on to devolution or not, we have respectful dialogue with them. We do not always agree with each other, but that makes the partnership a lot stronger...