Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate the words of the deputy minister. She jumped straight to the conclusions of the joint review panel. I'm not sure I share all of the findings, or agree with them all, but I still don't understand why our government didn't take the opportunity to intervene in that proceeding. Given the interests of Indigenous governments, downstream water users, I'm still trying to understand why our government wouldn't use that process to intervene and express our interests. I don't think I've had an explanation, so I'll ask again: why didn't we intervene? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I did not have my earpiece in. Could he repeat the answer? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Premier for that. I am just a little bit perturbed that Nutrition North needs to be redesigned but that we don't really have any ideas about how to do that. I hope the Premier can put something together fairly quickly and get that ready and work with this side of the House.

Building food security is going to take a lot of effort from this government, and it's going to cut across many departments. For example, food security can and should include greater support for community harvesters and local food production. Can the Premier tell us what the...

Thanks, Madam Chair. That is great to hear. I just want to poke into this a little bit further. Back on February 5th, the Minister talked about $6.8 million over five years for barren-land caribou herds. Is this ENR money that was approved through the FMB, or is this federal money that he was talking about back on February 5th? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. That is helpful, but I am still trying to understand. Are there some teeth to these agreements in that our government could dispute or ask an upstream developer, the upstream government, to stop or cease putting something into the water that is going to adversely affect us? Is that sort of authority found in the transboundary water agreements? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I will just leave that alone for now. I want to ask a question about Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program. What are we doing to actually facilitate a response and implementation to the environmental audits? Thanks, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the Premier for that response. It was 3,400 households, not individuals; it's a lot more individuals who are worried about food. Mr. Speaker, without a proper tracking system to account for local food production and consumption, it seems unlikely that there will be any measurable progress towards building stronger food security. Can the Premier tell us whether there is indeed a proper tacking system in place for food security in the NWT, and if not, will she commit her Cabinet to developing one?

Thanks, Madam Chair. That is great news. Thank you. I wanted to move on to caribou funding. The Minister talked about $5.9 million of additional federal funding covering a whole bunch of different areas. Then back on February 5th, I'd asked questions of the Minister around caribou funding for the Bathurst caribou herd. At that point, he talked about $6.8 million over five years. I am just trying to reconcile who is paying what for caribou and how much and over what period of time. Can the Minister commit to give us something in writing that lays this out more clearly? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. That is good information to have, but I don't think it really answered my question, which was: what was accomplished in the last Assembly with regard to these agreements? I am just going to leave that. We had a lot of discussion in the House and outside of the House about the Teck Resources project. The Minister had indicated that the transboundary water agreement with Alberta was going to protect us in some way. Could the Minister actually give us an explanation as to how that agreement will protect us from upstream development in the future? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I am not sure what those very specific actions were, but I think I will have to move on. The contract services here on this page has increased significantly. Can I get an explanation? Thanks, Madam Chair.