Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that commitment, and I know that everybody is working flat out on this. I appreciate that it is going to create extra work for the departmental staff, but I think that it will help close the accountability loop, so I want to thank the Minister for that.

Mr. Chair, I do have some additional points that I will raise on some of the clauses as we move through the bill, but that's it for now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can I get a commitment, then, out of the Minister to provide that information in the next few days, or maybe even tomorrow? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. First off, I guess I would like to clear the record. Yesterday I said that there were no submissions from the oil and gas industry with regard to the development of these bills, and when I went back and checked, there indeed was a letter from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers dated May 3, 2018. It was sent to the department in terms of development of these bills. It is 13 pages long, and I can confidently say that all of their concerns were addressed and have been incorporated into the bill, which is good news, but the standing committee did not receive any...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Okay. I don't agree with everything that has been said. I would like to know, after the one-year period, if something goes wrong, who is responsible and who pays? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures has reviewed Bill 56: An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and the Executive Council Act, Number 2. Mr. Speaker, the committee wishes to report that Bill 56 is now ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole as amended and reprinted. Masi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. This clause is about making sure that proof of financial responsibility remains in force during a suspension or abandonment of oil and gas facilities.

I want to thank the Minister for providing a letter to me yesterday. I tabled this earlier in the House. It provides some detail about how this is actually done in practice by OROGO. What this does is require that there be a one-year period after successful abandonment or decommissioning of a facility or an activity, I guess, that the financial responsibility has to stay in place for that long.

I would like to ask the Minister...

I didn't make those promises. Ministers did in this House, or even outside the House. All I am pushing for is to make sure that we fulfill those promises. There were further promises made to extend the fibre optic link to Tuktoyaktuk. Can the Minister explain the status of this work, its costs, and whether it will happen in advance of real connections and improvements in the communities that were supposed to be served by the fibre link in the first place?'

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I believe I heard the Minister say that concerns had been raised by OROGO and the NEB. This gets back to this issue of concurrence by the federal government, and I'd like to raise a point of privilege that this is impinging upon my ability to do my job as an MLA and put forward a motion for consideration of the House. I think this is thwarting my ability to bring forward a motion that is in the public interest, in my view. I turn my mind to some of the comments that were made yesterday by the Minister, as well, where, you know, federal consent was being sought as far back as...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister responsible for the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link. In my statement, I recounted how this was justified to this House as a means of connecting our communities to faster Internet services. All of the references portray the project as delivering high-speed fibre optic services in the communities. Can the Minister explain why the promised improvements to Internet service in the communities on the fibre link have not happened? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So all of this is being done in a very compressed time frame, of course, and I want to recognize that the regulator, OROGO, as it's called, the Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations, does produce an annual report. That's a good thing. This bill does contain a clause that would require the regulator, not just "may", the regulator "shall" within four months after the end of each fiscal year submit to the Minister a report on its activities, essentially.

What the purpose of this motion is, is to spell out what the content of that report might start to look like; and...