Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. The committee wishes to deal with Tabled Document 41119(2), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022; and Committee Report 1619(2), Report on Housing Phase One: Needs for NWT Homeowners and Private Landlords. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Short recess

Merci, Monsieur le President. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, June 4th, 2021, I will move the following motion: Now, therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that the Government of the Northwest Territories develop a food securities strategy by engaging Northwest Territories residents, harvesters, and agricultural producers to develop a coordinated and comprehensive approach to programs and services with specific targets, actions, and timelines.

And further, that the Premier appoint a Minister responsible for food security to lead this work; and furthermore...

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

Carried

Merci, Monsieur le President; I want to thank the Minister for that. Sometimes I feel like, and I probably even look like a dinosaur, Mr. Speaker. But the real dinosaur here is our climate change approach, which I think is headed for extinction as it's not going to be successful in doing our part to meet emission targets that are required to save this planet. So I'm not prepared to wait until another two years for Cabinet to only find out that it's not on track. It's backend loaded with projects that will never happen.

So can the Minister tell us when Cabinet is going to review and revise the...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I usually try to find something nice to say about my Cabinet colleagues, at least once a day. And this is a good one. So I want to compliment them for finding some money to start to close the municipal funding gap. But can someone tell me what the current, you know, calculation of the municipal funding gap is? I know there was some targets set in the mandate that Cabinet developed. So how much is the gap and how does this meet the mandate commitments and, you know, how close are we getting. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President, I wanted to recognize the work that the Member has done with youth or the Minister, I should say. There are a number of court cases in Canada against the federal and provincial governments due to their inability or unwillingness to deal with climate emergency without fobbing off responsibility in to the future which is what our government's approach is really all about. Can the Minister indicate whether our government is watching these court proceedings and perhaps watching over its shoulder for NWT youth? Merci, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Madam Chair. While the Minister is looking at it, could she commit to share that information with this side of the House? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. In our last sitting, I made a statement on this government's less than adequate first attempt at integrated climate change reporting. Unfortunately, there was not much to report given the lack of progress over the last year. This may have been partially due to COVID but is also rooted in the faulty design of the climate change approach from the last Cabinet that carries over into this Assembly.

So what's changed since February? Our neighbour to the west has joined a growing international movement to plan and implement more stringent emission targets to keep this...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, one of the issues that I had with the Whati transmission line back in 2019, and remains so today, is for the cost of the project  and I tabled documents in the last Assembly  showed for the cost of doing the Whati transmission line, you could actually get mini hydro in three Tlicho communities for about the same cost. So why would we build this huge transmission line to one community when we could actually get sustainable alternative energy in three different communities? I just don't get it. Can the Minister tell me whether any analysis has been done around that...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I remember sitting in the Chamber in August of 2019 when the House approved, I didn't agree with it, money for the Whati transmission line. Have we actually spent any money on this? Thanks, Madam Chair.