Merci, Monsieur le President. In June and December 2021, I made statements, asked questions, and tabled redacted summaries of the secret meetings of the GNWTChamber of Mines COVID recovery working group. As a result of my fifth access to information request on these secret meetings, I am pleased to report that this group has now changed its name and has a public terms of reference.
Furthermore, very short summaries of these ITI/NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines Engagement Group meetings are now posted on the Chamber of Mines website. None of this was publicly announced, as far as I can tell, and this new information is found on the chamber’s website but not anywhere on a GNWT website. I am not above taking some credit for this new found transparency and accountability on the part of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
In the terms of reference, there is an interesting item that "ITI members of the engagement group do not speak for the whole of the GNWT but will serve as an intermediary and liaison across GNWT departments where needed."
I hope that was the case during the previous secret meeting summaries which showed that ITI was going to be "watching" NGOs and pushing to lift land withdrawals. The affiliations of the engagement group are now publicly named and those attending specific meetings are now recorded as well.
As the Minister is probably fully aware, I am challenging the extensive redactions made in the previously supplied summaries of these secret meetings and look forward to a decision by the information and privacy commissioner.
There are still some troubling items in the three sets of meeting summaries now publicly available. The new summaries contain almost no detail as to what is being discussed. Several times, an item is listed as a topic with no details following. That makes me a little suspicious. There is more information in these summaries about the move to map staking and Mineral Resources Act regulations than I have ever seen before. It would be helpful if the department would be more forthcoming with all interested parties and included other interested parties in these secret discussions.
There is also a mention of sharing a panterritorial study on northern mineral resource investment with the Chamber of Mines when this document has not yet been publicly released. I will have questions later today for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment on this working group. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Monfwi.
