Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks again to the Minister for that response. Once we promote consumer protection a little bit better, maybe there is going to be a need for better collaboration there too. I am just wondering if the Minister can tell me when the last comprehensive review of the consumer protection act was undertaken?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am not sure I have a lot of confidence, but maybe I can ask, then: has this been communicated to and how is it going with the Law Society and the Law Foundation? Are they involved in these discussions? Do they know about this resource centre? Are they being asked to contribute? What is going on? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. We can compete about who has got a longer memory. Certainly with Giant there was $400,000. It is going to cost the taxpayers probably over a billion dollars, maybe even closer to two by the time it gets remediated. Even as recently as last year with Norman Wells, there is no financial security, or not enough set aside. Now it is $180 million. The Minister could accept a promissory note on the back of a napkin as financial security. That is just not good enough. There is certainly still room for improving and making greater accountability through our legislation. I know the...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, earlier I had asked if the Minister could just maybe put some of this in writing so we can get some clarity around how the budget for OROGO is put together, who reviews it and approves it at the end of the day, whether it is the Minister of Justice. I have heard it might be the Minister of Justice, it might be FMB. If he wants to take this away and come back in writing, I think that would be more helpful. Can I get a commitment from him to do that? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to go back to my own favourite Minister, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. The situation for consumer protection that I described earlier today, I think, is one that requires some improvement. I would like to think there is more to a complaints process than hoping customers can work it out with retailers. Can the Minister tell me what specific actions her department is taking to protect our consumers, tourists, and the reputation of our northern products? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So do we have an opening date for the resource centre, yet? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I don't believe the Minister has been able to present any hard evidence, facts, figures to support the earlier statement around reduced level of activity. He is got anecdotal information about perhaps there is less spending on mineral exploration, but the facts are there are still lots of water licences, land use permits, leases out there that do require inspections. There is no evidence that that activity has diminished in any way.

Let's go on a little bit further now into this risk matrix that the Minister has spoken about. Can he just provide a little bit more...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That is helpful, but I guess I want to know at the end of the day who decides what goes into the mains. Presumably it is the Finance Minister, or FMB, and is the OROGO budget then submitted to FMB for approval to go into the mains or is it completely independent, they get to submit whatever budget they want? Who makes the final decision on the OROGO -- ultimately it comes here, but before who decides what is going to go into the mains for OROGO? Is that an FMB decision? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So can we actually anticipate any costs savings then? I think, from what I can recall, you had forecast expending $200,000, more or less, this year compared to last year, so is that really going to happen? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I just want to get this straight. We had the Minister first say that these cuts were being made because there was reduced activity. Then it transitions now into explanation that they rejigged the risk matrix so that there is less work to do and that is why the cuts are being made. That does not really quite flow the way I had expected an evidencebased decision to come out of that.

Let's start with facts here. First, when we got devolution, we promised that we were going to do better than the federal government, and that is promise that was made to our residents. Now...