Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The intention of this motion, it's my understanding that Indigenous governments, their staff don't need or necessarily want to be engaged or involved in any change that's made to regulations or legislation, but why not sit down and have a discussion, work out when they would like to be engaged and involved around certain subject matters, types of changes that might be made and so on. I think the suggestion is a helpful one to sit down and work this kind of arrangement out so that it's in everybody's best interest. They know how they're going to work together in the future...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to commend our committee for spending some time thinking about this. I wish that we had had the luxury of a little bit more time.

I don't think that we sufficiently appreciate that this is a watershed moment in governance in the Northwest Territories. GNWT actually took over management of land and water resources. As part of that arrangement, there were commitments, maybe even legal requirements, that changes in the way that things are done, in terms of how we relate to land and water, have to be done differently now. There are requirements in place that Indigenous...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'd like to thank the committee for letting me sit in on some of the deliberations they had in Yellowknife around Bill 45, and I want to thank the committee. I think this is a clear example of how consensus government can and should work.

I know that at one point there were actually almost no, or virtually no, written submissions that the committee had received, and I want to recognize the work of my colleague the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre in seeking out some expert reviews of the bill. She certainly went the extra distance, and that's the kind of job that we...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I give notice that, on Friday, August 23, 2019, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that the Legislative Assembly repeal the Rules of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories originally adopted on May 27, 2015, and adopt the newest version of the Rules of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories identified as Tabled Document 510-18(3);

And further, that the new Rules of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, upon adoption of this motion, come into effect...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I don't want to get into a debate here, but I want to provide the Assembly and the public with reassurance that committee considered these recommendations very carefully. From my recollection, actually, the majority of them came from Indigenous governments, certainly the ones around technical working groups wanting to be involved in regulation-making, resourcing of technical working groups. These actually are very reflective of what we heard from Indigenous governments themselves, so I don't think it's really quite fair to say that these came from Yellowknife, and that just...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Minister for that, and I was careful with my question; I said how should it work in our jurisdiction, not how could it work or how will it work. That's okay.

In a related development, the federal government recently announced they are going to revise the rules and tools for the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. In no way could that ever constitute a national pharmacare program, but the changes could result in the savings of billions of dollars on prescription medicine. Can the Minister tell us if his department knows about these developments with...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just a few practical examples here to help flesh this out a bit. We had different drafters or departments saying, "You have to say 'website.'" Others said, "You have to use 'the Internet,'" in terms of defining how public registry is to be made publicly available. There were different ways of recognizing and incorporating Indigenous rights into the bills. That is discussed more fully in the committee report on the Public Land Act.

Sometimes, it was a basic, non-derogation clause. Other times, it incorporated the land resources and self-government agreements by definition. In...

I want to thank the Minister for that and his personal interest and commitment on moving this forward. Our Extended Health Benefits plan is based upon a list of medicines that are approved. The national proposal has developed an initial formula of essential drugs by 2022 and a full list by 2027. Can the Minister explain how this list will apply to the NWT, and whether we will need to maintain a regional supplementary formulary to address any of our special needs?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have been thinking a lot about this, and clearly, there needs to be a division between the legislative branch and the executive branches of government. That is how democracies are supposed to work. Someone is supposed to hold the pen, and somebody else is supposed to take it and conduct a review of it.

These are very significant matters with a lot of public interest. A lot of time and effort went into the development of these bills. Through our process here in consensus government, standing committees get legislative proposes that outline general subject matter so that we...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to welcome the executive director of the NWT Seniors' Society to the gallery, Suzette Montreuil. She is also a Frame Lake resident and just happens to be my wife. I haven't really seen a lot of her in the last ten days, so hi, honey. Thanks for being here and there at home. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.