Kieron Testart

Is the Minister in a position to answer any detailed information about the procurement of cannabis supply, including potential cannabis products that will be made available through retailers in the Northwest Territories and the names of suppliers that the government has spoken to? Is the Minister able to answer any of those details? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I rise today to speak to a matter that is very familiar to the floor of this House. That is the backlog of cases that exist with the rental officer of the Northwest Territories. The honourable Members for Hay River North and Yellowknife Centre have risen to attempt to get some sort of resolution to this matter. I commend their work on this important issue.

The rental officer exists as the final arbiter between the various tenants, both public and private, in our Territory, resolving matters pertaining to rent arrears but also property damages, disturbances, and the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I specifically asked around the procurement of liquor for the purposes of retail sales. Can the Minister confirm the other purposes the fund is currently used for? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So from the committee's review of the legislative proposal, our committee's understanding was that it was to absorb the anticipated cost of cannabis. I hear from the Minister now that that's not in fact the case; it's just more or less a housekeeping amendment to modernize or update the bill since 1990. As the Minister has indicated, this increase could be used for the procurement of cannabis. Can the Minister comment on whether or not a supply agreement has been reached with a cannabis producer? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to ask for a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As Chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, the committee has reviewed the legislative proposal and I'll speak to that now. Standing Committee on Government Operations reviewed the legislative proposal 18-6, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, on April 20th, 2018. The committee understands that the authorized limit of the Liquor Revolving Fund must be increased in order to enable to Liquor Commission to prepare for the impacts associated with the addition of cannabis sales to its operations. Given the tight timelines associated with the review of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This was not one of the committee motions, but I am glad the mover has brought this forward because it is an important issue, and we did hear a lot about the age limit. Many Members spoke to the minimum age for consumption. I know that this motion does not change that or propose to change that.

The mover also spoke about the jurisdictions of the states with a minimum age of 21. They also have a minimum age of 21 for the consumption of alcohol. In the European countries that have legalized cannabis, their ages are much lower, lower than what is being proposed: 18 in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I make this motion today to address, as I said previously, the largest infrastructure project completed to date by the GNWT.

As many Members of this House and the public know, I'm a fan of public accounts, and in particular the public accounts role that our Standing Committee on Government Operations plays here. Often times, we will receive reports from the Auditor General and look into how the government is managing projects or managing departments or managing policy issues that are important to the public's interest. In this case, we are talking about a significant...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it's telling when the mover of this motion has to characterize it in debate as a smokescreen in addition to other things. To address the strong feelings committee members are going to have says something about the nature of this compromise, quite frankly, the preoccupation with the Minister in debate over the last motion that failed, with Ministerial control and Ministerial discretion being unduly fettered.

Committees don't propose motions half-baked. We consult with experts. In this case, we consulted with a legal expert. The legal opinion we received is that it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I now seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 100(4) and to have Committee Report 8-18(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2016-2017 Public Accounts, be received by the Assembly and moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted