Kevin O'Reilly

One of the major irritants we have heard about the current administration of access to information and protection of privacy are the fees that are charged to applicants. These are set by regulation. Can the Minister tell us what action he is going to take with regard to fee reduction and/or elimination?

Merci, Monsieur le President. Last week, this Assembly passed the historic changes to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act that had been in the works since 2012. The Minister worked well with standing committee, and we now have very good legislation. The next step is to follow through on some of the other changes recommended during the public consultation as documented in the "what we heard" report. Can the Minister of Justice explain what the next steps are in following up on the November 2016 "what we heard" report from public consultations and flowing from the changes we...

Merci, Monsieur le President. [Translation] Today, my Member's statement will concern residents of the riding of Frame Lake who were named in the category through volunteer pride for young people. For three years, Vivianne Pauze has been carrying out volunteer work in her school theatre. Last year, she dedicated 77 hours as her role as script register. Over the past three years, she also officiated 20 times on events at the Northern Arts and Culture.

In the summer 2017, she did volunteer work as a soccer coach for a young team who were eight years old. In the school where she attends, she works...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I respect my colleague as chair, of course. I guess what this motion is trying to do is suggest or ensure that there is some coordination of reporting around state of the environment that is already taking place under part 6 of the Mackenzie Valley Resources Management Act, and that is generally facilitated by the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program staff who actually work within ENR these days. There are going to be reporting requirements, as I just outlined in speaking to the last recommendation, under this bill every five years. There is also to be some annual reporting...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have another amendment I would like to propose. I move that subclause 10(6) of bill 38 be deleted and the following substituted: "(6) The Minister shall make a decision to accept or reject the nomination within 90 days of receiving the nomination," and the Minister shall provide written reasons or a rejection to any nominating Indigenous governments or organizations.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I can live without the recommendation as it reads, but I think the real issue here is trying to prevent a conflict from happening in the first place. I think it is fair to say that everybody recognizes that the paramountcy of the land rights agreements, and that is recognized in this legislation, as well, but the trick is in ensuring that the resource management, the environmental legislation, that that's brought forward, really incorporates and recognizes the co-management regime that has evolved here in the Northwest Territories. I think that the real issue here is not so...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think, through the questions that I had of the Minister and his staff, I was trying to get to a point where we would better understand how this nomination process is really supposed to work.

I don't want to relive what was written in the dissenting opinion that we read into the House yesterday, but as I understood, the nomination process is supposed to happen quickly and is basically like a checklist. If the supplied information is provided, it should be just a straight conformity check that, once the supplied information is put together, a decision is made on forwarding...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I'd like to recognize a couple of Pages from Frame Lake who have been here with us for this sitting, Carter Kasteel and Zakiya Yalahow. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That is my understanding of 10(6), that really the Minister can exercise a lot of discretion in deciding whether to accept an area or not for nomination. The Minister, under the act, though, also has a lot of discretion in accepting whether an area that has been nominated gets into the candidate phase and is actually formally established as a protected area. The Minister also has discretion about changing the boundaries of a protected area or even deregistering it, basically, doing away with a protected area. Those are found in other sections of the act. I am just concerned...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm sorry; I am going to put the law clerk a little bit on the spot here, if I may. I have a legal question, then. Even though there are, sort of, a checklist of items that the Minister shall consider under section 10(2) of the act, and they include, you know, that the area is made up exclusively of public land, and that there is consent given if there is private land there, that the area has to meet the purpose of this act and any prescribed eligibility criteria. Would it be fair to say that, under 10(6), the Minister still has discretion above and beyond those items that...