The Member for Yellowknife Centre. The Member for Range Lake. The Member for Frame Lake. The Member for Mackenzie Delta. The Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you. The results of the recorded vote: 11 in favour. 5 opposed. The motion is carried. Tabled Document 193-20 will be reported as ready for consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill.
---Carried
Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 15, Northwest Territories Indigenous-Led Conservation Fund Establishment Act. I will ask the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to introduce the bill.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to discuss Bill 15, Northwest Territories Indigenous-Led Conservation Fund Establishment Act.
I would also like to thank the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment for receiving a technical briefing on the legislative proposal on October 23rd. Based on the feedback from committee, several amendments were made to the bill before you today.
[editors note: the above statement was corrected on November 1, 2024 through a point of order. The Minister of Environment and Climate Change made the following correction to Hansard: “Mr. Speaker I rise to make a correction to the Hansard record. Yesterday in my opening remarks on Bill 15 during Committee of the Whole, I said ‘Based on the feedback from committee, several amendments were made to the bill before you today.’ This sentence is inaccurate and was included in my remarks by error. Thank you.”]
The NWT Project Finance for Permanence, or PFP, Agreement, which has been renamed the Our Land for the Future Agreement, was negotiated by the partnership of 23 Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations, the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Government of Canada, and three private donors. The agreement will provide long-term funding for Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations to support Indigenous-led conservation, stewardship, and related economic diversification.
The process was Indigenous-led. Negotiations involved extensive collaborative discussions between the partners with the Indigenous leadership initiative acting as a facilitator. In August of this year, the final draft PFP agreement negotiations were completed.
I have approval, as Minister of Environment and Climate Change, to sign the PFP agreement on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories.
A signing ceremony will be held on November 14th in Behchoko. Canada is currently seeking approval to sign the agreement. While this agreement has not yet been signed, we will be tabling a copy of the agreement tomorrow for the purposes of transparency and for the ease of reviewing the bill.
The Our Land for the Future Agreement makes no changes to our existing regulatory or decision-making structures in the NWT, nor does it commit the GNWT to establishing new protected areas. The bill before us today would establish the Our Land for the Future Trust as a not-for-profit body corporate for the purposes of holding, investing, and managing funds contributed to the Trust in accordance with the PFP Agreement; Distributing funds to eligible Indigenous partners to carry out core activities in accordance with the Agreement; and,
Supporting the partners in achieving the purpose, vision, and objectives of the agreement.
Establishing a Trust in this way will provide the strongest case to the Canada Revenue Agency that the trust will be able to receive and disburse tax-exempt funds. I look forward to committee of the whole's review of Bill 15. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does the Minister wish to bring witnesses into the chamber?
Yes, I do.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber.
Minister, please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my left, I have Mr. Charles Hunter, senior advisor, Executive and Indigenous Affairs. To my far right, I have Ian Rennie, legislative council for the Department of Justice. And to my immediate right, I have Amy Kennedy, assistant deputy minister of Environment and Climate Change. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. As a bill, it was not referred to the standing committee for review. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 15. Any general comments from Members? Seeing none.
Does the committee agree that there are no further general comments? We will proceed to clause-by-clause review of the bill.
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. There are 14 clauses in the bill. Please turn to page 2 of the bill.
Clause 1, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 2, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 3, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 4, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 5, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 6, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 7, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 8, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 9, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 10, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 11, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 12, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 13, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 14, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, we will now return to the bill number and title. Bill 15, Northwest Territories Indigenous-Led Conservation Fund Establishment Act, does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, to the bill as a whole, does the committee agree that Bill 15, Northwest Territories Indigenous-Led Conservation Fund Establishment Act, is now ready for third reading.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does the committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 15, Northwest Territories Indigenous-Led Conservation Fund Establishment Act? Agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you, Minister, and to your witnesses. I'm going to ask that our sergeant-at-arms please escort the witnesses out of the chamber. Thank you.
Thank you. What is the will of the committee? I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that the chair rise and report progress. Thank you.
Thank you. I will now rise and report progress. Thank you. Sorry, all those in favour? Opposed? Abstained?
---Carried
I will now rise and report progress.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Tabled Document 193-20(1) and Bill 15 and would like to report progress with two motions carried. And, Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
