Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Premier for that. I'll be raising it again in May/June to find out, you know, if we're going to actually move beyond the 30 percent target ourselves. And I've suggested that we need to have at least netzero by 2050, that's the emerging global target if we're going to try to save this planet. But I'll have more questions in May/June then for the Premier and the Minister on this. That's all I have for now. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I’m going to return again to the issue of a child and youth advocate for the Northwest Territories, an issue my colleague from Kam Lake reports has been raised almost 900 times in this House since 2003. I’ve raised it a number of those times, yet we appear to be no further ahead today.

To be clear, a child and youth advocate is an officer established at armslength from the government to ensure that the rights, interests, and viewpoints of children and youth are considered when decisions are made that will affect their wellbeing.

In addition to a general oversight...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, just I wasn't clear on what the Minister's proposing. Is he can tell me privately what's going on which is you know, maybe I can get more information out of him by wandering down the hall but there's nothing to the public, and I guess that's my concern and issue is what you know, can the Minister work with the council somehow so that people even know who sits on this, what they're doing. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So on February the 9th, 2021, it's over a year ago, the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources announced that the terms of reference for the NWT Climate Change Council were finished. Council seems to have met a few times but I don't even know who sits on the council. There's no web page. There's no nothing in terms of products, communications. Is there actually a climate change council in place? And who sits on it? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. And look, no disrespect to the deputy minister; I know he's very hard working, I just need to get a political commitment from my colleagues across the aisle.

So I'm a bit surprised to hear that nobody really knows if we actually have a formula for calculating this on an annual basis and that it's not reported annually. So my suggestion, recommendation, is that whatever the formula is, that it should be transparent and that it should be recalculated on an annual basis. And I imagine that this is something like, it was done in 2014 with the Northwest Territories Association of...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Well, I'm sure we could clear some of these other items from the agenda. No, more seriously, Mr. Chair, I move that the chair rise and report progress. Mahsi.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, the first item on page 27 is reduce the funding gap by $5 million. Do we actually have a formula to calculate what the funding gap is at any point in time? Is it transparent? Is it reported annually? Sorry, there's two or three questions there but I'd like to find out more about how this is actually calculated. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Two yeses in a row? Wow, that's great, let's keep it up. Go for a third one.

I could not see anywhere in the evaluation criteria or the applications where environmental innovation or efforts to reduce environmental disturbance is rewarded in any way during the Mining Incentive Program.

Can the Minister explain how environmental best practices and innovation are considered in all Mining Incentive Program applications? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Against.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Yes, and I would like her to release it publicly. I've asked her privately about that, and now I've done it publicly.

Under the current guidelines and forms, applicants are not required to disclose any permits or licenses already obtained to commit to comply with them or disclose billing compliance to ITI if successful. Can the Minister commit to make these changes to the Mining Incentive Program applications to ensure bad actors are not eligible and only legitimate work is funded? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.