Kevin O'Reilly

Against.

For.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the mover and the seconder of the motion. I know the mover's obviously done quite a bit of work on this.

I do have a problem with the word "growth", quite frankly. You know, we do live on a finite planet and growth in some parts of the world, we just cannot sustain it any further without getting another planet somewhere. But I understand that the thrust of this is really about trying to maintain programs and services and sort of critical mass of folks in parts of the Northwest Territories, so I can support it.

We do have to start, I think, to pay a...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I apologize to the interpreters and the House.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Of course the difficulty with the annual reporting requirements of the Public Land Act is that that act is not actually in force yet. So we're waiting for regulations. So is there a way in which this information on financial security held by our government can be made available even on an annual basis in advance of the Public Land Act coming into effect. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that information. And of course the reason why I raise this is our government, when we had the surface lease for the Giant Mine, we had zero dollars in financial security, zero dollars, which we actually we ended up on the hook for $26 million in an agreement with the federal government as our contribution because we had zero dollars for financial security on that property. Ptarmigan Mine, zero dollars for financial security for the surface. It's going to probably cost us more millions of dollars.

So can the Minister tell us when...

Against.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I mentioned in my statement that inflation is expected to continue at record levels probably for the foreseeable future. I'm starting to get concerns from constituents about the impact of inflation on their quality of life, particularly those on fixed incomes.

Can the Minister tell us whether there will be increases to any NWT tax credits, increases to income support programs, or other measures to assist those NWT residents on fixed incomes as part of the budget 20232024? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

For.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I love when I get announcements in the House. It is good news, and I thank the Minister for that. But, however, I have been disappointed over the last six years at the lack of analysis and serious consideration of new revenues for the NWT.

Can the Minister tell us whether she will revise the revenue options paper with more recent numbers, especially in light of inflation and some of the factors that I had discussed in my Member's statement, and ensure it has a more balanced approach for these budget 20232024 consultations. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.