Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that commitment. I am just wondering, I understood that there had been money in previous budgets for the Frank Channel bridge. I am just trying to understand why we are still planning for it and we are not actually doing the work. Can the Minister's officials explain what's happening? Why we continue to spend money on planning rather than doing the work? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister tell us whether there is any money in 2019-2020? I understand this is the O and M budget for the planning that needs to know done for the Frank Channel bridge. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Members may be relieved to know that I will not repeat my comments on the process for this bill, as this was covered in my remarks on Bill 36.

The Oil and Gas Operations Act regulates activities that take place when companies explore for and produce onshore oil and gas, even on Indigenous subsurface lands. It deals with safety, environmental protection, and resident benefits from exploration and production activities.

The Minister's main role under the act is to approve benefits plans related to exploration. A regulator approves plans for safely and sustainably...

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for agreeing that he is going to talk to his colleague, the Minister of Finance. Look, I don't think this is rocket science. I think that it is probably a paragraph in your business plan. It is a table that shows the carryovers, where they might be occurring, and some reasons why they are happening. I don't know why the Minister of Finance would have to approve that going into a business plan, but if the Minister wants to chat with him and have that, that is great.

I think we need to get to the bottom of why this money is not going out the door on...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Minister for that. I have discussed with her constituent issues and raised this issue with her. We have clear cases that we have discussed together. I have constituents who get cut off, and they have nothing to live with. We have to fix this, and I hear the commitment from the Minister to work on this. I expect all of my colleagues to give her suggestions on how to improve the system, because we shouldn't be cutting people off.

I have supported the Minister in this administrative review, and I hope it includes indexing, but we need a more systematic...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I appreciate the reasons provided by the deputy minister, and I think I have heard them before. I want to know, though: does the department systemically track this across all infrastructure projects? Do they categorize the reasons why there are delays across the whole spending that takes place within the department? The project that they manage? It is great that they track this on an individual project by project basis, but do they roll this up so that they can see where the problem areas are, the systemic problems? That is what I am asking the deputy minister: are the...

Thanks to the Minister. It is all good news. I do sincerely appreciate her work on this area. I have repeatedly mentioned the need to index our Income Security Programs. Of course, those include income assistance, student financial assistance, seniors, and benefits to people with disabilities. We need to index those to the cost of living. Is the indexing of income security payments an element of the current review, and will recommendations be made to introduce indexing?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am glad to hear that there is a client-based project tracking system. I take it by that, then, it is individual projects where Infrastructure is managing these projects for other departments. Is that rolled up in some way across the whole government, and does it include the infrastructure projects that the department itself is undertaking? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Education, Culture and Employment offers a number of programs to support our residents in several ways. These programs include income support for post-secondary students and seniors and income assistance for low-income families and children, with additional amounts for people with disabilities. Many recipients of support programs say that accessing them can be difficult, discouraging, and demoralizing. The processes for income assistance, in particular, are very rigid and prescribed in regulations providing very little flexibility in response to client needs.

The...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The Minister well knows my views on this, that the mandate is so broad you could drive trucks through it. Here is a clear example of the Minister driving some trucks through the mandate. Look, if the priority is public safety, and I believe it should be, the Minister and his department should be working at replacing the Frank Channel bridge. The Slave Geological Province road should wait. Thanks, Mr. Chair.