Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. In February 2015, Strategic Oil and Gas Ltd. stopped production in the Cameron Hills field in the Northwest Territories. It bought the operations from Paramount Resources a couple of years before that, and GNWT approved the assignment of regulatory approvals to the new owner. The field consists of 50 wells, winter roads, summer all-terrain vehicle trails, a gas and oil gathering system, a central battery, temporary and permanent camps, airstrips, borrow pits, and bridges. A class A water licence and a type A land use permit cover its activities in the NWT.

It also...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that clause 7 of Bill 34 be amended by adding the following after paragraph (3)(r) I am sorry, Mr. Speaker. My motions are out of order.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I read this, (13) says that a person may apply for an instrument in accordance with the regulations establishing a zone or in the general regulations established under this act. There are going to be maybe two sets of rules, terms, or conditions that are established that could apply to somebody getting an instrument in a zone. For a prospecting licence, a mining claim, a lease, there could be two sets of rules that could apply to those instruments. Is that correct? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think that I have made my point. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. While the Minister was providing lots of reassurance around some of the concepts that the department wants to pursue through this legislation, can the Minister clearly state whether there is any intention to make this review open to the public at some stage and ensure that there are independent experts retained as part of it? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I would request a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's great. I'm glad to hear that the Minister's department didn't actually hear any concerns about that one when they were preparing to work on the bill. This committee did hear that. We have raised that. Here is another policy issue that was live, raised to the committee, about how they would like to know what's going on within their boundaries. This is consistent with having good neighbour relationships, all that sort of thing that the Minister talked about in his opening remarks, but there's no provision in the bill.

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to move into the motion if I...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am kind of in this awkward situation where I wanted to get some clarification about what the intent of the registry was and so on and why the list of intended work, at least in the Minister's and the Minister's staff's view, could not be put on the registry. This motion would require that it be put on the public registry, subject to the confidentiality requirements in the act. There are confidentiality requirements even in this section of the bill. There are other provisions further down in part 8 of the bill. I have heard concerns around that industry might be worried...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I don't accept all of the reasoning there from the Minister, but he also neglected to indicate that 24.7 here would allow the Minister to create zones on the Minister's own initiative. Is that correct? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks for that. I appreciate that, and I think that it shows that Minister followed through with his commitment. That's great, and I think that these sort of changes should and probably do require consultation with Indigenous governments. Can the Minister indicate whether there were any discussions with industry on these changes? Thank you, Mr. Chair.