Kieron Testart

Merci, Monsieur le President. [Translation] I have some questions for the Minister of Lands [Translation ends]. Again, the mandate commitment is complete land use plans for all areas, including regions without land and resource agreements in collaboration with Aboriginal governments. So I would like to ask the Minister, of the two regions without land and resource agreements, the Akaitcho and the Deh Cho, what is the status of those two land use plans? Thank you.

Thank you. Does the department feel that this is a sufficient complement of staff to succeed in its legislative agenda as it is currently envisioned and adequately consult and communicate that legislative agenda with Members of the public and the standing committees as appropriate? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to comment on what the witness was saying in her statement. I appreciate where the witness is coming from on this point. I do think that a healthy tension between elected bodies, whether they be school boards or Members or municipal governments, perhaps having a different opinion on how policies are implemented or rolling out, I think that is not confusing the issues. I think what was confusing the issue was who is paying for what? The role of the consultants' report, the role of the standing committee, how much information was being shared, whether the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Would this, the corporate management, be an activity to start to have a discussion around communications issues within the department? Thank you

Mr. Speaker, thank you, and a thank you to the Minister for that commitment. I just note that there has been a lot of discussion about this from the new federal government. Even His Holiness Pope Francis has made a very clear commitment to the rights of Indigenous peoples, so I wonder if the Minister then can give us some assurance that these plans will be in place by midterm? Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for that clarification. Let's get back to land use planning. As it is not directly related to a settled agreement, what can the Minister do outside the Deh Cho process to move this file along, apart from assuring me that an ADM is on top of it? Is there any concrete policy change and political leadership he can apply to the file to settle this 10year, this decadelong, lapse of approving the plan?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for being brief in his response. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister have any suggestions or new directions that he's going to take his department in getting this land use plan done and succeeding in his mandate, to his department and his own mandate, commitment to complete the land use plan? Thank you.

On the Deh Cho process, my understanding is that the interim draft land use plan has been approved since 2005, so what has kept our government from signing off on that land use plan for over a decade?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to speak on the matter of the Yellowknife Improvement Plan that the Minister of Transportation brought forward to this House in his statement yesterday.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to lay out some of my own facts. Canada places 124th out of 141 countries ranked by the World Economic Forum for cost competitiveness of its travel and tourism industry, and a recent analysis says that much of this has to do with both ticket taxes and airport fees.

Mr. Speaker, airport charges alone account for 25 per cent of the price difference between airfares in...

Thank you. Just on the matter of the Education Act, in particular visavis communications, there was a change in instructional hours that was negotiated between the Teachers' Association and the government. Now, that change needs to be reflected in legislation. However, that is coming late in the day to legislators, so are those kinds of realities being properly understood by the department, and are we going to catch those in the future? I think it is very important we remember the very important role that standing committees and elected officials play in reviewing legislation and ensuring that...