Kevin O'Reilly

Mr. Chair, yes. I just make the case again: I do not want to see cuts in ENR to fund other kinds of infrastructure. Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have no further questions. It is more of a comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The same sort of questions I had for the Minister of Lands, to some extent: when I look at page 16, the total capital expenditures really jump around quite a bit for this department. I think I probably have some ideas why, but I guess I would like to hear from the officials. What is going on? In 20162017, it was almost $29 million; 20172018 revised estimates, $10.6 million; this year, for 20182019, it is only $3 million. What is going on here? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I sort of feel like Prancer now. I'll be prancing more once we get the plan and a supplementary appropriation, but I encourage the Minister to keep working on this really hard and I respect her efforts on that.

I want to turn to municipal funding, capital funding now, and I recall that the NWTAC worked closely with communities and the department to carry out a municipal funding review and that, rather than just a straight formula, it was going to be much more of a needs-based approach. Does this capital spending move us any closer to that new arrangement? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Look, I understand the Minister is committed to 911 and I commend her for doing that and making that step. That's a very strong political commitment that was made in this House. I know that the fall started yesterday, so are we looking at before Christmas we're going to get a present with this plan for a 911? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. First off I'd like to thank the Minister of Finance and his staff for the work that has gone into the capital budget, but I do have some concerns.

I guess a couple of matters in terms of what's in, or what's perhaps not in, the budget. First off, I couldn't find any discussion about the fiscal responsibility policy in the document, and specifically there is a set of calculations that the department goes through to sort out what the envelope is that's available for capital expenditures, and I didn't see those calculations in here, either. I think this has been raised with the...

Thanks to the Minister for that. Unfortunately, I didn't hear a commitment that they were going to be reviewing the policy even though he says that we still support the declaration. I'm not prepared to review the policy, but maybe I'll try a different slant here.

In my statement earlier today I pointed out the inconsistency between the lofty and courageous principles in the Project Assessment Policy and how a GNWT interdepartmental committee may operate in assembling technical advice and evidence.

I will just give an example here. If government scientific experts produce evidence that...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Lands, who is responsible for the implementation of the Project Assessment Policy. In 2008, this House unanimously endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I see that our government still supports the declaration, but it's not clear what we're actually doing to implement it. Can the Minister tell me and this House whether there was any consultation or engagement with Indigenous governments in developing and refining the Project Assessment Policy, and if not, why not? Masi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Cabinet approved the Project Assessment Policy on April 13, 2017, after a review by standing committee. The policy applies to all GNWT departments, boards, and agencies and establishes the administrative procedure for assessing any "seismic surveys, exploration, extraction and/or production of natural resources, development of infrastructure, or remediation of past resource or infrastructure activity that might have environmental impacts within the Northwest Territories."

Although it was improved as a result of standing committee review, it is still not a good...

No, thanks, Mr. Chair. My time is up. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just to follow up with one question. There has been no CPI increase in this year's money over last year? I want to confirm that because when I look at the money -- yes, we'll start with that. Thanks, Mr. Chair.