Wendy Bisaro

Thanks, Madam Chair. I have a few questions here. I have to echo Mr. Bromley’s comments that without having seen these bills ahead of time, it’s difficult for us to understand them in the short period of time that we’ve seen them. The Premier mentioned that Bills 16 and 17 weren’t available until a couple of weeks ago. Well, even two weeks ago it would have been really helpful for us to get them at committee to at least look at them ahead of time.

I did want to ask a question with regards to the Premier’s comments on the bottom of page 1, this act “…makes legislative amendments that have been...

Okay, that’s kind of getting to where I needed to go. My next question goes to, I presume there is funding in the 2014-15 budget if that’s when this agreement is going to be implemented. So how much is in the 2014-15 budget for this Intergovernmental Council and where would I find it in the budget? Under what department? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for hearing that it’s going to go to Cabinet this week. I want to talk about the timing. The Minister stated in answer to my colleagues last week that there are two options, we can proceed or we cannot proceed. The amount of time that’s involved so far, it has already been two years since the court decision and it was quite some time before that that both parties were in court, so the Commission scolaire has been looking for this accommodation for a very long time.

I’d like to know from the Minister, if there’s going to be a discussion at Cabinet this Thursday, how much...

Great explanation, but it doesn’t give me much comfort. I didn’t really hear that there are any enforcement capabilities, and it’s something that concerns me, particularly in a number of areas as devolution comes forward. We’ve got a lot of operating mines, for instance, which, as we’ve heard over the last couple of weeks, don’t have adequate security for their closure plans, and this sounds to me like it’s similar. We’re going to have a regulator who makes a decision, but will the regulator be using somebody to determine that the amount of money that’s declared is accurate and is appropriate...

Thanks to Mr. Goldney. The act established or the agreement, either one, but there is a secretariat that is established. There are costs associated with that secretariat. Clause 4 says each member is responsible for their own cost of participation on the council. But then Section 9 says money required to be expended for the purpose of carrying out, et cetera, shall be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund. So my question goes to the cost to GNWT.

What are the costs that are referred to in Section 4 and, ultimately, what are the costs to GNWT, since I gather that we are going to be providing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We heard from some of my colleagues last week that negotiations between the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and the Hay River DEA to swap schools in Hay River have broken down. Not only has the Hay River District Education Authority withdrawn but so has the Commission scolaire francophone.

The solution proposed by the GNWT, while workable, just did not provide for a good learning environment for either Ecole Boreale or Harry Camsell School students in Hay River.

The situation in Yellowknife is no better. Negotiations are on hold while Education District...

Thanks, Mr. Aitken. One last question. I guess it’s a comment, really. I notice that it was in Bill 10, as well, and I’m pretty sure that it’s in some of the other bills, also, but closure and reclamation of developments isn’t really covered, I don’t believe, in probably any of these acts, and it kind of goes to the same issue of financial security that Mr. Bromley was talking about. Do we have in these bills as we mirror them, do we have what the general public would consider as adequate financial security and adequate requirements for closure and remediation plans when a development is...

Thanks to the Premier for the explanation, but it doesn’t give me any warm and fuzzy feeling that the public is going to get the report. I understand the intent of this clause is that the public will get the full report, but it can be interpreted a number of different ways, so is it going to be covered in regulations or is it simply going to be left to the Minister of the day who will decide, yeah, no, today I’m going to do one page and maybe next week I’ll do 300? Thank you.

Thanks to the Premier. That’s good to hear. Where is that going to be laid out? Is it laid out already in regulations, or is it again something that has yet to be determined? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Druyan. Yes, that’s clear. I’m laughing because the manner in which it’s released could be one page as opposed to 20 pages, and I understand that’s not what you said, so my question then goes to what is going to identify the manner in which it’s released; refers to electronic versus paper versus something else as opposed to you can release it in a manner of, you know, a one-page summary or a 300-page detailed document? Thanks.