Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I rise to commemorate the sacrifices made by Allied soldiers on the shores of Normandy, France, 75 years ago today. Canadian soldiers, along with their Commonwealth and American allies, took part in the largest seaborne invasion in human history. This landing opened a western front on mainland Europe, and over roughly the next year, along with Soviet forces in the east, the Third Reich was besieged from all sides and ultimately surrendered in May 1945.

The task our forces had before them in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, a task which had never been...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move the chair rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Environmental liability has been a subject of interest for the committee over the years reviewing the public accounts. Again, the transparency around these liabilities has improved year on year. We have recommended that the GNWT put this information on some sort of website or single portal so it's very clear what the environmental liabilities are, where they're located, and additional information that may be relevant to an interested member of the public. The Treasury Board of Canada has a similar digital repository for the environmental liabilities of the Government of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the sources that we often look at to understand public sector accounting and how governments report on their own finances is annual reports from the C.D. Howe Institute. That is not our sole authoritative source, but it is a very good one. They have done a lot of work on this, and they grade different provinces and territories in the quality of how they are reporting their public accounts. Unfortunately, the GNWT usually receives around a D. PEI got worse. They have a D-. It is imperative that we find better ways to improve.

A consolidated budget is one of those...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will just point out that, in our ongoing quest for more plain-language documents when it comes to very complex public-sector accounting such as the public accounts of the Government of the Northwest Territories, we have always pushed for better ways to show how much the government plans to spend, how much they have actually spent, and everything in between. In our conversations this year, the committee noted that a consolidated budget would be a good way to get this around, and the comptroller general at the time indicated that the GNWT believed it was in a position to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This marks the final review of public accounts for the Standing Committee on Government Operations in the life of the 18th Assembly. Over the years, the standing committee has gained a great deal of knowledge about the public accounts process and has developed its own best practices for dealing with public accounts. This is a really fascinating area of legislatures in Canada and around the world, and there is a great deal of knowledge to learn. It's our hope that some of our knowledge and experience will be transferred on to future Assemblies, and we will be able to see...

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. This motion is one of two, but I will just speak to this one. It is an amendment, a motion to amend the bill. This is a notice in consideration of new or amended regulation.

What this says is, if the Minister is going to implement new regulations, 30 days before they are made, those regulations are shared with Indigenous governments, renewable resource boards, and land use planning bodies or boards, and those groups are allowed to present their views to the Minister, and the Minister should consider them. It does not require the Minister to consider them. It does not...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the idea of legislative timelines is a very good idea, or by regulation, but timelines provide certainty and clarity to the public and to interested parties in this.

In this case, this bill, again, is a bill created for use by governments and not by the public, so it is imperative that we get this nomination period over with as soon as possible so the public process can start and people can be aware of what decisions are being proposed for the shared land of the Northwest Territories.

I think putting a timeline just provides that kind of certainty, and we get beat...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we discussed in our report, there was an effort to put something similar in law around this, the co-drafting process, so that there would be a clear pathway for engagement of Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories. When we undertook our standing committee hearing of the bill, the Minister indicated at the time that this discussion would play out at the intergovernmental council. The only concern I have around that is many of the Indigenous governments that were invited to participate in the co-drafting exercise are not signatories to the devolution...

I request a recorded vote, Mr. Speaker. My apologies.