Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. I understand that this is complicated. Now I will push my luck. If we can even get it before the end of next week, that would be even better. I will leave that with the Minister and his staff; they are laughing over there at me, but we have a shelf life here, and I would like to get that information before mine expires. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Of course, the Premier is under no obligation to actually answer questions, but if he does have that letter, the signed version, it would be great to see it. Can the Premier tell us whether he consulted or informed his Cabinet colleagues about this letter before it was signed and sent?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister or staff tell me when this bill will come into force? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President.

Bill 36 establishes a term of 15 years for significant discovery licences (SDL) where previously exclusive rights to petroleum lands were granted for an indefinite time. Committee received submissions that questioned the 15-year term and were seeking answers on why this number was chosen. Considering term limits in other jurisdictions while taking into account the unique conditions of the Northwest Territories, committee believes that 15 years is a time limit that would allow industry to do work and still insert a time-bound requirement.

Several submissions...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, and I hope to be here in the next Assembly to have some say in how that rolls out, but I think that is all the questions I had. I want to put the law clerk on the spot here, if I may, Mr. Chair. I would like to ask the law clerk: any of the motions to amend the bill in committee, did any of those motions -- I guess I can only really ask about Bill 36. Did any of those motions have any effect on the jurisdiction of the National Energy Board with regard to the ISR? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Thanks, Mr. Chair. That is not what I heard in committee, but I will take the Minister and his staff at face value. This could have still created a lot of duplication. It took 10 months for the department and the Minister to get federal concurrence, so this is a time-consuming process on their part. It's not what I heard at committee, but I will take it at face value. I don't think this was a good thing, to be messing around with a bill while it's before committee. I would like to ask the Minister: what are the next steps in terms of reviewing oil and gas legislation? This was step one...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Well, I am not sure I agree with the Minister's assessment. I believe that this is really certainly not in keeping with consensus government principles, to go off and seek federal concurrence while a bill is before the Legislative Assembly. I would like to get confirmation from the Minister and his staff: the changes that have now been made to this bill, they, as I understand it, they will require federal concurrence again. Is that correct?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a few brief comments, and I do have a couple of lines of questioning that I would like to pursue.

First off, I was quite surprised that committee received absolutely no submissions from industry. Not one. Nothing. There is no record of any submissions made to the department as part of their development of the bill, because all of the submissions are still available on their website. To me, that means that there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest on the part of industry in commenting on our regulatory regime that they are actually governed by. They don't seem to be...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have raised this issue, again, on the floor of the House. I don't actually agree with everything that is in the recommendation. We don't have to do a comprehensive review of oil-and-gas-related regulation.

This absolute liability cap is in regulation right now. The Minister could change this tomorrow if the Minister wanted, and this should have been within the scope of the changes that were made to these pieces of legislation. I don't understand why the department didn't flag this internally as a problem. Right now, the absolute liability cap is somewhere between about $10...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am not going to belabour this one, because I am going to wait for the Minister to come up, and he is going to answer some questions about this. The public does need to know that the department and the Minister went off and got federal concurrence on the bills, because there is a requirement that that take place under the Northwest Territories Act.

While the bills were before the committee, the Minister went off and sought federal concurrence before committee had even changed them. It is my understanding that, even with the changes that have now been incorporated into the...