Bob Bromley

Thank you, committee. We will start on page 1 with clause 1. Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act, clause 1.

---Clauses 1 through 53 inclusive approved

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The most urgent challenge facing our people, economy and our environment is the impact of climate change and the critical need to reduce our production of greenhouse gases. Even since the last time I spoke on this topic, new information has shown that things are getting rampantly worse. Sea ice melt is accelerating toward the prediction of an ice-free Arctic by 2030, 2020 or even sooner now. Global precipitation on land is down 40 percent. Alberta’s rivers are running at 20 to 80 percent of their normal flow. In the NWT, melting permafrost is causing higher levels of...

Thank you, committee. I would like to ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Thank you. Mr. Ramsay, I would like to ask you to introduce your witnesses, please.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. I would like to ask if you will be bringing in any witnesses.

Thank you, committee. We’ll be dealing with Bill 7 first and then Tabled Document 4-16(5), but first a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

Thank you, I call Committee of the Whole to order. We have before us today the four items including Tabled Document 4-16(5), Executive Summary of the Report of the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project; Tabled Document 30-16(5), 2010 Review of Members’ Compensation and Benefits; Tabled Document 38-16(5), Supplementary Health Benefits – What We Heard; and Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act, No. 3. What is the wish of committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.

Again, thanks for those remarks. I’d like to, sort of like the Biomass Strategy, a great strategy, I agree with it, but there are no targets, there is no schedule for implementation. So I’m wondering if the Minister would commit to putting this process down on paper with the targets, the time targets and achievements that we can expect through the years so that we’re, indeed, coming in on schedule and bringing that to committee, say, when we meet at the end of June or sometime that’s convenient and not too far down in the year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask what work has been done to get the process on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy, the new one we’re expecting for next April, started. Thank you.

Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act is now ready for third reading.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay, and thank you to the witnesses. Mr. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the House.

Okay, thank you, committee. I believe the wish of committee is to move next to Tabled Document 4-16(5), Executive Summary of the Joint Review Panel Report. We had started but not concluded general comments. So does committee agree that we will continue with general comments? Agreed? First on the list, Mr. Abernethy.

I appreciate, then, that the review would likely be moving towards completion by the fall so that things might move forward in the plans. I understand from industry reps that the current requirements for ITI support programs, such as the need to file three-year business forecasts, don’t recognize the reality of this industry that moves from project to project. This obviously points out the need for industry-specific programs as our sister territories have recognized. Will the Minister ensure that the unique operating conditions of this industry are, therefore, addressed in the terms of...