Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I noticed here that the budgets for a couple of the statutory officers have actually decreased. For the Information and Privacy Commissioner, there is $28,000 less for 2019-2020, and for the Languages Commissioner, I am not going to attempt to do the math in my head; $38,000, my friend tells me. Can someone explain to me why these reductions are being made? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I know that, over at the archives, there are actually copies of the minutes for the Northwest Territories Council going back to 1921, and they are the only record of those minutes anywhere in the world, as I understand it. Do you know if that sort of information is part of this project? There are research requests, and I have had reason to go back to the 1950s recently on this, but is that going to be part of this project? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Nice try. Thanks, Mr. Speaker. I am not going to be nearly as long on this one. I am not going to oppose this bill. It does serve a number of public purposes, including allowing for pension credits to be earned by residents and so on, so and it is simply enabling legislation in terms of allowing for a cost of living credit to be used. I don't really have anything to oppose on this bill. I wish that there were some stronger public reporting provisions tied back to how this is going to be used to report on rebates that are tied to the carbon tax, but I don't have any difficulty with this bill...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that commitment again. Can the Minister commit also that, when he puts this information out, he is prepared to accept public comments on it? Because he has already made up his mind perhaps about this without any public input, but I would like to know whether he is prepared to accept public comment when he puts this information out. This is about having an open and transparent government and not just consulting with industry in setting these kinds of rates.

Thanks to the Minister for that explanation. Is the Minister prepared to make that information public?

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for confirming that for me. For a government that says it is open and transparent, consulting only the industry and perhaps Indigenous governments, only consulting industry, I don't think that is a great idea, and I think that is a clear definition of regulatory capture. Can the Minister make public the work requirements and rental rates for future significant discovery licences and the rationale that he used in setting them? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Well, it is my understanding that, when the federal government issued those original rights, they made provision for fees to be charged as a rental rate. Perhaps the rental rate wasn't specified, but at least it was in there, so why did the Minister not include any fees or work requirements in the 10 significant discovery licences that he issued?

Merci, Monsieur le President. I, too, would like to recognize my friend, Violet Camsell-Blondin, and I have had the pleasure of working with Violet for probably 30 years. She now serves as the chair of the Status of Women Council, and I thank her for her public service. I would like to recognize Frame Lake constituent Louise Elder and thank her for her work as executive director of the Status of Women Council. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the explanation. Just to be crystal clear here, there is no change in the funding that is provided to the Information and Privacy Commissioner or the Language Commissioner. There is no reduction in their ability to carry out the programs and services that they do, other than the fact that the resources are being reduced to provide for a shared support person in the office. Is that correct? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I might go and have a chat with some folks in the library as well, because they provide great service to us, and it would be great to have that sort of archival information available online for research purposes as well. I want to thank our witnesses. Thanks, Mr. Chair.