Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think that I heard from our friends here that, in water management and monitoring, there was an $85,000 reduction in water research and studies and a $50,000 reduction in travel. I am wondering how that is impacting our ability to negotiate the Transboundary Water Agreements. Maybe I could start with: have there been any new agreements signed during the life of this Assembly? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, well, although I believe in stronger public governance of the Heritage Fund, it is not me saying this. This was direction from the Legislative Assembly. The mandate was accepted. It was voted on in this House, and now the department has gone off and contracted out the management of our Heritage Fund. I can assure you I did not hear that when I sat in on the business plan review for this department, so this comes as very much a surprise to me, that we are contracting out the management of our Heritage Fund. Can the Minister provide me any sort of assurance that there is...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that detail. I am not convinced. It may not have an effect on programs and services, but it may have an effect on the kind of submissions that we make to land and water boards, regulatory bodies, the kind of expert evidence that they require to make sound decisions. Is that going to be impacted by these reductions? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I will wait until we get to the management board secretariat, and I just found my page here. It is 151. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Look, I appreciate the deputy minister's answers. I am not questioning his ability to manage the department, and so on. I would like to ask the Minister: did he ever consider going to the Financial Management Board and seek the additional funding or to get a waiver or whatever so that the department did not have to make these internal cuts to come up with the amount of the anticipated savings? I would like to know why the Minister didn't take that route. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am a little bit surprised, because this is the first time I have heard about it. Can someone explain the rationale here to contract out the management of our Heritage Fund to a third party? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can someone tell me what the status is of the contaminated sites manual? I have been asking about this document for three years now, and it's shown in the business plan as something, I think, that was supposed to be delivered in the last quarter of 2018. If someone could tell me where this work is at, I would appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the response from the Minister. I don't necessarily agree with these concerns. I'm just passing them on from what I heard, and I meant no disrespect to any harvesters who might go out there. If folks are not experienced and not well-prepared, things can go badly sometimes. I don't think anybody wants that to happen, but these are concerns that I'm hearing, and I'm passing them onto the Minister.

I don't have any other questions about this, other than to say that I am very, very concerned that there is no money in the budget for the caribou crisis. We should have...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That explains the $800,000 in reductions within forest management, but there are cuts to other parts of the ENR budget that relate to the Fire Boss aircraft. Why were the cuts made to the other parts of the ENR budget to fund the shortfall? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Well, that is certainly news to me. I have never heard of that one before. Can the Minister share a copy of the RFP with the Standing Committee on Government Operations? Thanks, Mr. Chair.