Wally Schumann

To be clear, these caps are addressed in the regulations, and we are dealing with the act. That's what we are dealing with. The Member is talking like we are opening up the NWT to liabilities, and that is not what we are doing. In fact, what we are trying to do is close that loop that exists around suspended wells and clarifying responsibilities that operators in the NWT have. These changes that we are proposing do not change the fact that, in the NWT, when they are at fault, the polluter pays.

I think, instead of beating around the bush, I'm going to go right to the crux of this. The capital estimates have been tabled in the House of the Assembly, and I would be glad for the Member to ask me questions. Deliberation around this section of road is what he is referring to, and I think he will be quite happy to see what information comes out of that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to try to do the best I can to answer this Member's questions, because this is a very complicated area within the PRA.

One thing we have to make clear on this is we have mirrored the regulations. That was part of devolution and that's what we have right now. That's why it's clearly stated out there as laid out.

We are working on oil, OGOA; I guess we can call it the Oil and Gas Operations Act. That's going forward. We are having a look at it. OROGO is the other side of this issue, which is handled by the Minister of Justice. From my understanding, OROGO is...

BDIC is a valuable contributor to the NWT economy. One of the things that has come up in this Assembly is the BDIC Act. It has a program review written into it every five years, and that's what we're doing right now. We're having a serious look at that. ITI is leading that work along with BDIC and its stakeholders. That work will continue, and I think most Members have a bit of an understanding of it because they have been briefed on it. The terms of reference have been finalized already, and we've shared them with standing committee. It has three main focuses, and they are: they will consider...

As we sit here and deliberate this conversation around the Oil and Gas Act and the regulations, the Member has raised a lot of concerns, and I agree with a number of his concerns. This is not something that we are just going to go out and do at a snap of our fingers. We have a lot of different players in this territory. We have committed to deal with all the Aboriginal and Indigenous governments in this territory, and the public. I am not just going to change the regulation before we change legislation on the Act, and I suspect it will be the way we do our full consultation within the...

As I've stated in this House before, we have a number of workshops that we conduct across all regions of the Northwest Territories. I don't have those stats right in front of me, but I notice a significant amount of people who have attended these. We continue to work with the business community. Certain Members in this House have brought up procurement as an issue with me. To date, I still have not had more than probably five complaints from the business community. I'm looking forward to this report that standing committee is going to present to me. I'll gladly sit down and have a discussion...

As I said earlier in my statements, we had a look at the SEED program and we realized that there were some pressures on it, and rising costs around some of these things. We got feedback from a number of NWT businesses, so we looked at changing this up. Our budget still is $3.86 million. That is what we talked about earlier already today, and that hasn't changed at all.

What has changed is individual applicants have increased for most of our programs, so one of the changes that we made is the individual contribution under the entrepreneurs stream. The entrepreneurs support stream has increased...

As I have said, we are moving forward with the mirrored legislation on devolution. We are looking at the Gas and Oil Operations Act. That's what we are working on. We are going to look at the rest of it in the 19th Assembly, should this bill pass here.

The Member is not going to like this comment, but you know, we have 200-and-some mandate commitments within this Government of the Northwest Territories. To zero down on a regulation here where there's exactly no activity going on in our territory wouldn't be a good use of my time and the department's time. I'm not shunning that responsibility...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't think I referenced the Federation of the Business thing, but I've met with them. They have their opinion on what's happening in the Northwest Territories. My recollection is they use a very small case of data to give us this grade, but we recognize that, as I've said, I'm a small business owner in the Northwest Territories. The one thing that we did that helped to address this is through our BizPaL program. That is a very good program. Online, you can go on there and it takes you through all the licensing and permitting or whatever you need to do to help...

As I have said, I will have a look at the information when this comes up in the next budget session and make that decision going forward. I am going to have to have a hard look at this, and the Member has to have a look at this. If we are going to put more money into the SEED program, which would be great for myself, it has to come from somewhere within this House. Do you want to take it from Health? Do you want to take it from Social Services? Where do you want to take it from? Maybe the Member can give me that feedback back. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.