Rylund Johnson

Yellowknife North

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 17)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I will begin with: why does the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation not have a board?

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 17)

I will convey that information to the city, and I look forward to asking about those discussions. I can tell you the reason that the City of Yellowknife has asked for this is because they find dealing with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs extremely frustrating. I am happy to finally see the Property Assessment and Taxation Act coming forward. There is a number of unique things that we can do in Yellowknife, whether it be municipal bonds, local services, vacancy taxes, that simply just would not make sense in the smaller communities and may not even make sense in the other tax...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 16)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. Committee will reach out, and we will look forward to continuing to have those discussions. Especially ENR's legislation is at the heart of, really related to, Indigenous and Aboriginal rights. I was hoping the Minister could speak to the process we are going to use and whether all of these post-devolution kind of initiatives will be using a co-drafting process.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 16)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Interestingly enough, we, as Members, are actually allowed to purchase carbon offsets through our CWAA to save for any flights we may take. Just an interesting fact for Members. I would like to see the GNWT look into that. Will the Minister of ENR -- I recognize that perhaps Finance, I don't know where exactly this would lie -- be willing to look in the possibility of GNWT utilizing carbon offsets as one of the many tools in fighting climate change?

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 16)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess my next question is: work began on the Forest Act in the last Assembly. This department also is responsible for a number of the devolution pieces of legislation, the Waters Act, EPA, very significant pieces of legislation and work to be doing. Given the rush to get a bunch of legislation done in the last Assembly, I was just hoping the Minister could speak to what legislation we can expect to come forward in this Assembly and whether it's adequately funded in this budget, or should we expect to see a supplemental to make sure all of that very important...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 16)

Thank you, Madam Chair. My concern is that the Auditor General, one of the specific things is that we seem to lack any clear authority of responsibility for climate change. If we know that the energy strategy is not going to get us to meet our targets and we know that we, as a government, are not reaching our targets, which I think, considering we are disproportionately affected by climate change, really is not showing that we are a leader -- we are a relatively small jurisdiction. I recognize that, but I think we all have to do our part. If we know that we are not on track to meet our targets...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 16)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Now that we have this on-the-land unit developed, I was wondering if there were plans to update the Traditional Knowledge Policy.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 16)

Thank you, Madam Chair. When can we expect to see air regulations in place?

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 16)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps I could get the Minister to commit to just providing some more information to the appropriate standing committee on the status of this work. I believe the goal here is to eventually stand those down, if I'm not mistaken.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 16)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do recognize that it is a privately owned herd, so I guess I will just accept that as an answer and reach out to Mr. Binder at some point. Madam Chair, I guess my next question is: presently, we have a fairly large no-bison zone due to a number of disease controls. I have actually had constituents reach out on the possibility of looking into bison farming. They also looked into reindeer herding as the possibility of getting some of those things, and right now, the regulatory process just essentially makes that impossible, is what my constituents have told me.

This...