Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In my remarks earlier I mentioned that this bill has been in place for 29 years. It is not very well-used. What has happened in those 29 years is that the concept of environmental rights has evolved. I mentioned how 149 of 193 countries in the world now have constitutional recognition of environmental rights in one form or another. Unfortunately, Canada is not one of those countries.

I also talked about how expectations were raised by the department during the public consultations of the bill around matters like definitions of a right to healthy environment, public trust, and...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That information the department is looking to put on its website perhaps to better promote this, will that include maybe a plain-language version of how a request for environmental investigations can be made and other provisions in the bill? Is that the sort of thing that would get promoted in plain language? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the 19th Assembly have a public ceremony where each member agrees to and signs the code of conduct. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

Great. Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am really pleased to hear that, that the idea of an environmental registry may still be alive. I mentioned that the current act started off as a private Member's bill back in 1990 or 1991. It has been around for 29 years. Requests have only happened four times under it and an investigation only once. When could we expect that the next review of this bill will take place? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Committee did make five recommendations in our report. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories create a separate section on its website for the Integrity Commissioner and that all documents that must be posted on the register be located on this page. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I move that clause 19 of Bill 39 be amended by a), striking out "and" at the end of English version of paragraph (d), and substituting semi-colon; b), striking out the period at the end of paragraph (e) and substituting "and"; and c), adding the following after paragraph (e); (f) the steps which were taken to prepare or amend a statement of environmental values under section 17; and (g) the steps that were taken to ensure that a statement of environmental values prepared or amended under section 17 was considered in decisions where required by this act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In my earlier remarks, I mentioned how, during the development of the bill, the public consultations that were held, there were a number of items that the departmental staff had raised, maybe even some expectations, dare I say, because those were brought to the attention of standing committee during the review of the bill. There were expectations raised around an environmental registry, that there would be methods to propose policies, programs, agreements, initiatives, maybe even an ability to comment on those, as well, when they became posted to the environmental registry.

T...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I have two documents I would like to table, the first being "CBC News Article posted July 2, 2019, 'Here’s what you need to know as carbon tax takes effect in Yukon.'" The second document is a copy of the "Yukon Government Carbon Price Rebate Implementation Act." Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks. I would like to close, if I could, then. The intent of this was to try to be helpful.