Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Lands. I think he's got three days left, but on the review of the project assessment policy. The Minister committed to have the review completed in December 2022 in response to my written questions in March of last year.
Can the Minister tell us the status of that review and whether the work to revise this antiquated and regressive policy will be done by the end of the 19th Assembly? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Lands has engaged with other departments and has completed an initial review of the project assessment policy. With the announcement of the merger of Lands and ENR, further work of the policy will continue under the Department of Environment and Climate Change. And I expect some to share some of the information on the project assessment policy with committee in upcoming months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. The clock is running out. In response to the written questions I submitted in March 2022, the Minister said that there would not be any public engagement or work with Indigenous governments on the review of the project assessment policy. We have these public engagements on such mundane matters as renaming the old Stanton Hospital and a product survey for liquor and cannabis, but we're not going to ask the public about how GNWT should be involved in environmental assessment major projects? Can the Minister explain why the department does not want to seek public input into revising the project assessment policy? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the project assessment policy's an internal policy that defines how the GNWT works internally amongst departments for project assessments. So at such time, we will not be or planning to have public engagement on this policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Although it may be an internal policy, it's a public interest. That's why I keep raising it in the House. A key feature of the devolution agreement was the establishment of an Intergovernmental Council to allow the public and Indigenous governments to cooperate and collaborate on matters related to lands and resources management. The goal of the Intergovernmental Council is to work together to explore ways to coordinate the respective lands and resource management practices, share capacity, and avoid duplication.
Mr. Speaker, those two sentences are directly from an IGC website. So can the Minister explain why his department does not intend to work with Intergovernmental Council in reviewing the project assessment policy? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the policy's not solely focused on land and resource management issues as defined in the intergovernmental agreement as the Member talked about. As I stated earlier, the policy defines how the GNWT works internally among departments for project assessments. As such, there is no requirements or plans to work with IGC on this policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Final short supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I'll try my best here. You know, the Minister talks about this not being part of the work that the Intergovernmental Council does but I think he probably needs to check with them. But, you know, this project assessment policy is not about an evidencebased make or evidencebased process. It's about preventing presentation of evidence and expert opinion that is not consistent with Cabinet's views.
So can the Minister tell us whether this government is really committed to evidencebased decisions and how that will be implemented in the context of GNWT sponsored projects and related decisionmaking? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, government is committed to evidencebased decisions, and as I've said previously, the project assessment policy will continue to support the representation of the GNWT's evidence and expert's opinions. Currently the Department of Lands and, on April 1st, the Department of Environment and Climate Change, is working to define how the GNWT can be more transparent in environmental assessments, including decisionmaking of the GNWT's project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
