Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. I am happy to take that commitment from the Minister. I just want to correct one thing. This is actually something that was started in the 17th Assembly, or just before the election, maybe. I just want to know why we are spending $72 million on renovations for a building that we are not going to own and then we have to lease back space out of it. It just doesn't sound right to me, but I'm happy to get the Minister's explanation following this meeting. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to table a letter from the Yellowknife Daycare Association and Children First Society dated June 9, 2020, to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, regarding support for childcare during and after the pandemic. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm trying to understand why we're spending $72 million for renovations on a building that we're not even going to own at the end of the day. This is part of a weird P3 arrangement that I could never really get to the bottom of in the last Assembly.

Can someone explain to me why we have to spend this much money on renovations when we're not going to own the building and we're going to have to lease the space afterwards? Is that what this arrangement is all about? Thanks, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the Minister for that. I don't think that was actually good news for us, being downstream of Alberta. Can the Minister, though, tell us what action he has taken to protect NWT waters and residents from the reduced water monitoring in Alberta?

Thanks, Madam Chair. Look, what do I know? Is there an Internet service provider in Tuktoyaktuk right now, and are they going to hook up to the fibre link? I just don't want this to end up being another community where the fibre link goes by, or to it, and there is no way for people to access it. What is going on with this project? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. There have been public reports that the Alberta provincial government and the Alberta energy regulator have unilaterally decided to reduce water monitoring as a result of the pandemic. The quality and quantity of waters flowing into the NWT from Alberta are supposed to be protected by a Transboundary Water Agreement. Can the Minister confirm whether he has received any notice of reductions in water monitoring from Alberta under the Transboundary Water Agreement? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I don't need this now, but can I get a commitment out of the Minister of Lands to give us a briefing note about the status of the project and the land tenure for it, and whether this is going through an environmental assessment, that kind of thing? There's a lot of finger pointing going on on the other side. I don't really care which Minister provides it as long as we get an update, a briefing note on it. That will be helpful. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I had a chance to get my hands really dirty on the weekend. We drove down to the Northern Farm Training Institute, or NFTI, near Hay River to volunteer. On the first morning, we built trellises for pumpkins and squash, but in the afternoon we each bagged about 1,000 pounds of potatoes.

The Great Potato Collaboration is now under way. NFTI put out a call for potatoes for the NWT during the pandemic to help build food security. The Potato Growers of Alberta helped identify one of its members, Sunnycrest Farms, that could help. John and Marlene Ekkel own Sunnycrest...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Can someone tell me what the status of the Inuvik wind project is? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. The reason why I'm raising this is I was in the last Assembly. We saw this trend of increasing amounts of carry-overs from one year to the next. I took the previous Finance Minister to task over this and suggested that we needed to have some way of tracking what the reason was over time as to why we can't get the money out the door, why we can't do the spending. This is increasingly critical during this pandemic, that we find ways to get money out the door to help stimulate our economy. As the largest driver in our economy, we have to get the money out the door. I need to...