Kevin O'Reilly

Mahsi, Monsieur le President. We don't have to look far to see the mounting impacts to climate change. Extreme events such as high water levels, sea ice disappearing at unprecedented rates and new species arriving in the NWT, like magpies and cougars, are all signs of the need to change the way we use energy. The latest modelling shows that to prevent the worst climate effects, we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

It's not clear how our government is evaluating our investments in energy projects. The Social Environmental Justice...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Just to be crystal clear, you know, Cabinet is going to have an obligation now to respond to these committee reports. There's some clear recommendations in here for legislative change, and I expect that our Cabinet colleagues are going to adopt and endorse some of these recommendations without having to necessarily consult with Indigenous governments. But I look forward to them actually bringing forward the required changes in the lifetime of this Assembly. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. This was a major point of discussion and debate in the last Assembly. I think it's fair to say that Cabinet had to be convinced that this was something to move it forward, the Ombud legislation. And we had to pick a date. The Regular MLAs tried to push this back to April 1st, 1999. Cabinet wouldn't accept it. And so there was a stalemate of these I guess some Regular MLAs did side with Cabinet. I'm not going to go into those details. But this has become an issue. The Ombud has identified this as an issue in some of the investigations she has carried out, that she would...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to discuss Committee Report 1319(2), Report on Review of the 201920 Northwest Territories Ombud Annual Report. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nunakput, that Bill 29, Resource Royalty Information Disclosure Statute Amendment Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the following statutes to allow for the disclosure of confidential information respecting resource royalties for use in the development and evaluation of policy for the Government of the Northwest Territories to a Member of the Legislative Assembly or to an Indigenous government, Mineral Resources Act, Northwest Territories Lands Act, Petroleum Resources Act. Thank you, Mr...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for detailed response. The last question to be asked to ensure our energy investments are efficient and effective is to make sure that we actually conduct lifecycle emission reduction analysis. Can the Minister tell us whether this type of analysis is done to evaluate energy investments before Financial Management Board and Cabinet make decisions? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Infrastructure who is also responsible for the NWT Energy Strategy. I've indicated that there are three basic questions to apply to all GNWT energy investments, where to cut first, technology and projects ready to go, and evaluating lifecycle emission reductions. Most of our greenhouse gas emissions are from the resource sector and transportation outside communities. Can the Minister tell us what specific offtheshelf shovelready options are being pursued to reduce emissions from resource extraction and transportation? Merci, Mr...

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

Thanks, Madam Chair. This, again, was a matter of a lot of debate and discussion in the last Assembly. The wording in the bill as passed was not ideal. The regular MLAs attempted to amend it. That motion failed. Cabinet attempted to amend it. That motion failed. We didn't do a good job drafting this portion of the act as it became law. And now the Ombud has pointed this out as well. The current wording is just not very clear. It's rather awkward.

And this wording would make it clear that, you know, matters of administration and implementation of a policy can be investigated by the Ombud when...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, someone who was here in the 18th Assembly when the bill was being reviewed, I think this was just an oversight on the part of folks that were looking at the reviewing the bill and the draft of it and so on.

The advantage of the Yukon definition is that it basically captures those organizations that are set up through legislation or  and I'm not going to get all of the exact criteria right. But basically they are in one way or another almost an arm or a creature of GNWT. So I think the principle here was that  and this was identified by the Ombud as something that was...