Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that. If I was worried before, now I'm even more worried that this modeling doesn't even go into the Northwest Territories. So if it doesn't cover the Northwest Territories, I'd like to know more from the Minister what he's going to do about this? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

That's one of the few times I think I've actually got a 'yes' in this house, so very pleased to hear that, and I know a lot of other Yellowknife residents and others will be quite happy with that.

So in the description of the activities carried out under what the purpose of this section of ENR is, there's words around prevention. Is there any policy work that this section of ENR is going to do this year? The only thing in six years that I've seen here was about a 10 or 12page document about some kind of vague GNWT policy around contaminated sites. Is there any other policy work, legislative...

Merci, Madam la Presidente. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources about the development of regulations for discharges from the Alberta tar sands.

I understand that Alberta has begun ecological and human health risk assessment work downstream of potential discharge points. Can the Minister tell us what involvement, if any, this government has had in this risk assessment work and whether it includes impacts into the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So is there money in this budget to do work at Ptarmigan, and can we get reimbursed? And what is that amount? And can we get reimbursed for that money by the feds? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that. We do have a few tools that we can use to encourage the energy transition, including the yettobetapped large emitter trust accounts and their ridiculously restrictive policy. No changes have been made to the policy to access these funds despite assurances from our Minister of Finance.

Can this Minister, though, tell us what incentives and regulatory changes will be made in the new energy action plan to ensure a transition away from fossil fuels? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's all I have for this activity. Thank you.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. My questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure on hydrogen as a power source for the NWT. I participated in a useful workshop for officials recently staged regarding this topic. I'd like to know from the Minister what role hydrogen will play in a new energy strategy and action plan for the Northwest Territories? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. So I guess I'll make a couple suggestions.

Can I get a commitment, then, out of the Minister to give us a briefing note on this? Because I've heard different ranges of kilometres. And if that briefing note could clarify land ownership and who's responsible for forest resources along the corridor of the road. The last thing I want to do is interfere with the Tlicho agreement in any way and their rights. But so can I get that commitment out of the Minister? And secondly, can he commit to actually communicate this with the public? Because it's been radio silence with the...

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm going to let the Minister in on a little secret. I expect that there's going to be a supplementary appropriation probably come forward maybe May/June for this set of main estimates, and I want to encourage him to bring forward an increase in funding for the community harvester assistance program. So I'll just put that out on the record.

I want to move on to the disaster compensation fund. That's a grant; it's on page 74 of the main estimates. And I see that the actual amount for 20202021 was $400,000. And I think this was as a result of flooding of Taltson and...