Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I was just wondering if the Minister can tell us how close we are to the supplementary reserve limit? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Premier for that response. I just don’t know why this report that was commissioned using taxpayers’ money can’t be shared with the public and committee now, but I will keep going here. The Premier mentioned, in the committee meeting last week, that there is some kind of a working group that has been established. Can the Premier tell the House who is serving on this working group and table a terms of reference before the end of the session? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Premier for that report, to some sort of a plan coming forward on carbon pricing. Last week, I asked whether a modelling report on carbon pricing could be shared with the public and Regular MLAs. The response from the Premier was that it could be shared with committee at some unspecified date. Can the Premier tell me whether he is prepared to table the report in the House during the current session, and if not, why not?

Merci, Monsieur le President. Last Wednesday, the Premier gave the economic development and environment committee a briefing on progress towards an Energy Plan and Climate Change Strategic Framework. An update was provided on public engagement, and work on the Pan-Canadian Framework, that will form the national plan for climate change action.

The Premier and committee witnesses had very little to say about carbon pricing, as no one seems to have the clear lead. I had to pry for facts on cross-departmental collaboration, both there and in the Committee of the Whole review of the ENR budget last...

Merci, Monsieur le President. It was almost a month ago that I gave my reply to the budget address. So what has changed since then in terms of the 2017-18 budget now that we have an Appropriation Bill in front of us? I will review of the budget process, the offer from Cabinet, the amended budget, and draw some conclusions.

The budget process. Let no one be fooled, the reduction targets are driving this budget in an effort to build larger surpluses to spend on infrastructure projects or roads to resources. That has been Cabinet's fiscal and economic development strategy since the mandate was...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. We all want the students who are in the program to be supported. There is going to be a lot less work to do because we are not taking in a new cohort. Is this really a prelude to cutting the programs completely? I just don't understand why we would make this reinstatement and how it is any different than what the Minister had already committed to do. Can the Minister provide some clarification of what is going to happen with the teachers for the program? There are going to be fewer students for them to be working with because we are not taking them...

Thank you to the Minister for that response. We won't actually see a change in the line items in the main estimates in terms of the contribution to be made to Aurora College. Is that what I am hearing?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the commitment from the Minister on that. We know April 1st is coming up quickly. There is a provision in the agreement for dispute resolution. I am wondering, would the Minister be prepared to recommend that the Giant Mine Oversight Board invoke the dispute resolution process under the environmental agreement if we can't resolve this quickly? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I am aware that there is provision in the agreement for the federal government to go to the Treasury Board to resolve this on a permanent basis, but there is a way for them to address the issue right now, and that is just simply to increase the contribution agreement for the next year by the amount that was unspent in the previous year. That would allow for, essentially, a carryover. I guess I would like to know from the Minister what he believes are the next steps that he and his staff will take to get implementation of this key feature of the agreement back on track?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to my colleagues. I wouldn't raise this issue in the House if it were about a few thousand dollars, but this goes to the very heart of why Yellowknifers lost confidence in how government was attempting to remediate the Giant Mine. I trust that our government is working diligently behind the scenes to ensure that the federal government lives up to the promises it made to invest in a permanent solution for Giant Mine. I will have questions later today for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Masi, Mr. Speaker.