Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to follow up again with the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. He talked about two different ways of capturing some benefits from significant discovery licences. One is in the initial call for bids, and second, in the actual issuance of the significant discovery licence itself. In the call for bids, has a decision been made by the Minister on what the rates would be for significant discovery licences in the future? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the interim, we have laid out some rates that are detailed, and we have shared that information with committee.
Thanks to the Minister for that explanation. Is the Minister prepared to make that information public?
I don't see why we can't do that. We can certainly have a conversation with the Member. I will talk with the department, but I don't see why we would not make those rates public if we are going to impose them on industry.
I thank the Minister for that commitment. Can the Minister give me an idea as to when he expects to make this information public?
I will have to talk to our officials and see when we can get that out there and let the Member know.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that commitment again. Can the Minister commit also that, when he puts this information out, he is prepared to accept public comments on it? Because he has already made up his mind perhaps about this without any public input, but I would like to know whether he is prepared to accept public comment when he puts this information out. This is about having an open and transparent government and not just consulting with industry in setting these kinds of rates.
I will try to make the afternoon, seeing as it's a Friday. This is an interim measure that we have put in place because we saw there was a gap in this one post devolution. The PRA is going to be taken on the road by the Member and his committee, and there will be input from the public if they want to have input on this. Everyone in the Northwest Territories can have input on legislation that is going to be put out there, amongst consultation with all members of the Northwest Territories, industry, and Indigenous governments, and I welcome all comments back on what we want to do around SDLs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
