Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I believe in land use planning. That's what I studied at university in the early 1980s and what brought me to the Northwest Territories in 1985. If you want to create sustainability and certainly over the future of land and water, meaningful and legally binding land use planning is required. While our government agreed to legally binding land use planning in the Gwichin and Sahtu settlement areas as part of those land rights agreements, progress on other land use planning has been slow, if not glacial.

Deh Cho land use planning has been going on for many than 20...

Merci, Madame le President. The committee wishes that the chair rise and report progress. I would like to move it as a motion. Madam Chair, I'd like to move a motion that the chair rise and report progress. Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Infrastructure. Yellowknife taxi companies are looking for relief from airport taxi stand licence fees to get through the hard times. Can the Minister tell us what analysis, if any, was done on passenger traffic volumes before the decision was made to rescind the waiver on these fees as of January 1st, 2021. Merci, Mr. Speaker,.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Now, I'm getting somewhere. This is great. No, seriously, though, I do appreciate that the Minister's willing to review the situation and she's going to get back to me in writing. So I appreciate that very much.

When I had an earlier exchange with her on this issue and I was told that, quote, from the Minister, "The YZF regional airport manager is continuing discussions in an effort to find a solution to alleviate the apparent challenge with these lease payments", that's great. But I'm not sure what else we can do besides prorate or reduce the fees.

But can the...

Merci, Monsieur le President. That's great to hear the passenger traffic is increasing, but I didn't actually get a response to my question, as usual, Mr. Speaker. I asked for what kind of analysis was done before the waivers were rescinded as of January 1st.

But while these fees are significant for taxi drivers and their companies, I'm not sure that they're a vital revenue source for this Government.

Can the Minister tell us how many dollars were collected by charging the airport taxi stand licence fees at the Yellowknife airport and at all airports across the NWT in the last year and then the...

Mahsi, Monsieur le President. Further on the theme of the pandemic, we all know that COVID19 has had impacts on small businesses and questions persist about how this government can help operators get through the hard times. The taxi industry is a prime example and I have a specific ask for how this government can help.

With the collapse of the tourism industry and discouragement of nonessential travel, the volume of airline traffic has dramatically shrunk. Air Canada is out of Yellowknife market entirely. WestJet is on reduced service passenger volumes and other air carriers are way down as...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that information. It's interesting that these fees were only charged in Yellowknife, and it's only $45,000. I don't know why we can't do something about this. But, of course, we all look forward to the day when the pandemic restrictions are lifted and that we can get tourism going again. But if we don't have a taxi industry, how are they going to be able to serve the tourists that arrive here.

So will the Minister give that service sector the relief that it needs now and reinstitute the waiver on or at least prorate the taxi stand...

Merci, Monsieur le President.

I give notice that on Monday, May 31st, 2021, I will move that Bill 29 Resource Royalties Information Disclosure Statute Amendment Act be read for the first time. Merci, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Mr. Speaker. I know it's a question period, and I don't have to necessarily get answers. But I still don't have an answer to that question. So I'll give the Minister the opportunity when she answers my next questions to say that she'll actually respond to the first one I asked.

But, Mr. Speaker, I've had some concerns raised with me about the qualifications, perhaps some of the work that might have been done by some folks that may be doing some of the assessment.

Do homeowners have the ability to seek a second opinion, or if they disagree with the assessment...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Sorry. I didn't give the Minister and Municipal Community Affairs a headsup, but I've received a number of calls, emails, about the briefing that we had on flooding, and I wanted to take this opportunity to follow up on some concerns that have been raised with me.

First off, I've heard a number of concerns around how the assessment of damages is being done or could be done. And can the Minister tell us whether communities have the ability to hire their or a First Nation would have the ability to hire their own assessors, get the work done, and seek...