Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. Committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 94119(2) and Tabled Document 94019(2). Thank you. We'd like to consider the operations sup first and the infrastructure sup second. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. So one of the line items here is to provide funding for obstetrical services at Stanton Territorial Hospital, $762,000. Can someone just explain to me what period of time this covers and what this funding is going to be used for? Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I move, seconded by the Member for Thebacha, that Bill 91, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act, No. 2, be read for a second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act to establish an annual report with respect to the administration of carbon tax under the act. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks. Well, we can quibble over deadlines, but the Minister's words were by the May/June 2023 sitting. We've got, what, three days left, so I would appreciate getting it with enough time to actually look at it and raise any issues that need to be followed up on hopefully in the House. So I appreciate that we may get this tomorrow. But I don't think this is going to solve the rates stabilization fund problem which seems to be ongoing and structural with NTPC. And, you know, I worry that the next Assembly's going to be faced with the same issue again and again and again until we come up with a...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Of course, these projects also have the potential to destroy the Bathurst caribou herd. So I'm well on record as opposing any large infrastructure that will have irreversible effects on the Bathurst caribou herd, especially at a time when the numbers are critically low and without a balanced management response, and that's precisely where we are, Mr. Speaker, because there's been no efforts towards permanent protection of key habitat.

So can the Minister tell us whether there was any discussion of the impacts to caribou or other environmental matters during this...

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I think the real relief here is for NTPC to get off diesel and this is part of a bigger discussion, I guess. But this same thing happened in 2014 and there had to be huge money put into NTPC for rate stabilization at that point. So this just continues to happen again and again and again. And it's because I don't know, I've just NTPC should be focusing on doing itself out of a job and building, you know, energy selfsufficiency for communities and for households, and that's not what they're doing. They're trying to build big projects and maintain systems that are...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure about her recent trip to the US Embassy. Can the Minister tell us the purpose of this meeting and who else was there? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, I'm glad I caught that, Madam Chair. So one of the items here is the Northwest Territories Power Corporation to provide funding for NTPC rates stabilization, costs of additional diesel costs for customers of $15 million. Can someone please explain this. Thank you.

Merci, Monsieur le President. It seems to happen more often lately by this Cabinet that Regular MLAs learn about events and meetings through the media rather than directly from our colleagues across the floor. Scooped by Cabin Radio again, the Minister of Infrastructure seems to have been summoned by the United States Embassy for a meeting that was to have taken place on May the 4th, 2023. As Regular MLAs, we received nothing, either before or after this meeting. The Cabin Radio story was rather sketchy about the purpose of this meeting. It appears that there was some sort of discussion or...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.