Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Madame la Presidente. The original Environmental Rights Act was passed as a private Member's bill by the Assembly in 1990. That legislation went through its first and only review in the last Assembly. There have been only four requests under the act in 30 years, so it's obviously not very well used or promoted. Of the four requests filed, there has only ever been one investigation actually carried out.

Unfortunately, the new Environmental Rights Act only made some minor improvements to what was already in place. The basis for investigations was extended to include acts of omission, but...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the Minister for his honesty in all of that and forthrightness. I do have some ideas, though, that I will pitch his way. There was a collaborative approach taken with the NWTAC for the municipal funding gap review. There was a working group. They looked at the issue. They looked at some alternatives. It included people from MACA, as well. One of the principles that they said was that no community should lose funding as a result of this. I think that is a good thing. I think that is something you might want to think about as a principle for looking at the...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of areas I'd like to explore. One is early learning childcare. The funding shown on page 41 actually looks like it's declining over time. The backdrop to this is that the early development instrument results were released in 2018, and they actually showed an increase in the vulnerability of our youngest students, children up to age five, which is not a good place to be. I know the former Premier got some, maybe, headlines that he really didn't want to get for talking about that in the media. In every single study I've ever seen about investment in early...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, and I take what the Minister says, that there are some very specialized requirements for a museum. There is also a great example in Whitehorse where Yukon archives are co-located with the Yukon College. They have an arts centre there. It's a wonderful kind of facility. It's a little bit out of the downtown area, but I think there is another example of how we can do things. I just want to move on to one other question, and that is the name of this facility, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Is that something that we might look at, you know, finding a better...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I really appreciate that. I guess one of the things that is sort of in the back of my mind is the fact that we don't have a territorial visitors' centre. If anybody has been to Whitehorse, they actually have a spectacular one that is right in their downtown area, and it does serve the interests of the whole Yukon. Is there some thought being put into, perhaps, different partnerships or co-uses or however we may want to frame it, in terms of other government needs, given sort of the central location and the function that the museum has played over the years in terms of...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm just wondering if the Minister or staff can tell us about the feasibility study to retrofit the museum. What is the status of that work, and is there a plan to actually retrofit the museum? I know we're talking about the O and M budget, but I think this feasibility study was partly funded out of the O and M budget last year. Thanks, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the Minister for that. Look, I am trying to find ways to save this government money, and having a central registry is one way to begin to do that. There is similar reporting that is required from ENR around the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program. That is under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. There is state of the environment reporting under the Environmental Rights Act. Can the Minister tell us how all of this environmental reporting is going to be coordinated?

Merci, Madame la Presidente. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. One of the recommendations from the standing committee in reviewing the Environmental Rights Act and approved in this House was the passage of anti-SLAPP legislation, or a law to prevent strategic litigation against public participation, and that that should be introduced in the 19th Assembly. Can the Minister tell us whether or when anti-SLAPP legislation will be introduced in this House? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I appreciate the Minister's comments, and I am sure he will be happy to do this, but can he make a commitment to come to standing committee to talk about this? I know he is going to brief us, brief committee, on the funding formula itself, but in terms of a process of reviewing and changing, is he willing to come to committee and seek committee's input into designing that process? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Well, this should make for some very interesting discussions when it comes to the supplementary appropriation in May-June, where we're going to try to get the biggest bang for our bucks. It's wonderful that the Minister and I are on the same page on this, and I look forward to more money in the supp for this particular investment. I want to go, though, to the funding formula for schools. I think that the Minister, even today, has said that that's something that is going to be reviewed. I'm just wondering if he can give us a little bit more explanation of how and when that's...