Kevin O'Reilly

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the response from the Government House Leader, but I've been waiting for about a third of my term now for some of this important legislation to come forward. Really, waiting to see these legislative proposals that are going to come forward from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

I think what's happening here, Mr. Speaker, is that our government is spending an inordinate amount of time on cost reductions to meet Cabinet's fiscal reductions, slashing public services to fund ill-defined infrastructure projects including department amalgamations...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I had hoped to hear from the Premier as the leader of Cabinet on this, but I'm happy to hear from the House Leader. I would have preferred the Premier.

I'm just not talking about a planning document, Mr. Speaker. I'm talking about the mandate that this House agreed to at the beginning of our term, and, in that mandate document, there's a number of legislative and regulatory changes that were outlined, one new Act, 13 amended laws, and at least two new regulations. None of these have come forward to date.

Can the Premier  I guess I'm going to hear now from the...

Merci, Monsieur le President. We are now about a third of the way through our term. On December 15, when he became the Premier, he said ''This will be an Assembly of change and better government." This Member and the public are still waiting for the promised changes. To date, there have been a total of 14 bills, eight of which were appropriations. Yes, Mr. Speaker, this Cabinet has introduced an amazing total of six bills in one third of our term.

We may go down in history as the most legislatively lethargic Assembly in history. Those six bills, outside of appropriations, dealt with pithy...

Masi, Mr. Speaker. I have two written questions.

The first one: GNWT participation in the Association for Mineral Exploration BC roundup, January 2017. My questions are for the Premier. The full Cabinet and a contingent of support staff travelled to Vancouver during the week of January 23, 2017 to attend to Association for Mineral Exploration BC Roundup.

Can the Premier provide a list of all NWT Ministers and staff who travelled to Vancouver for the meetings and,

total cost of travel including transportation, showing air travel by executive versus economy class; accommodations; expenses; and...

I appreciate the response from the Government House Leader, but we're almost three years into devolution and our government has not changed one word of the mirror legislation that was passed with virtually no public input.

Can the Government House Leader or the Premier tell this House and the residents of the Northwest Territories when we can expect to have any legislative changes to reflect the promises that were made around devolve and then evolve?

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Premier.

Earlier today I spoke of the legislative inertia of Cabinet. We are about a third of the way through our term, and only six bills, of limited consequences, have come forward. Can the Premier explain what is going on with the ambitious Cabinet legislative agenda? Merci, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources now has the authority to sign off water licences following devolution. When I raised issues around how this new authority is being exercised, the Minister tabled a response in this House on October 27th. The Minister said "when rendering a decision on a water licence, it is the responsibility of the Minister to ensure the quasi-judicial process administered by the board has been conducted in a fair and transparent manner. To this end, procedural fairness is a primary consideration."

This raises a number of...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I support this motion. Some of the reasons are outlined in the report itself, but our inventory of contaminated sites continues to grow. In 2014, it was 129. Last year, at March 31st, it was 216 contaminated sites. The liability associated with those sites continues to grow as well. In 2014, it was 32.1 million. Now, it is 68.9 as of March 31, 2015.

These are the reasons why I continue to raise these issues around contaminated sites and the need for us to have a proper system in place to prevent public liabilities and for financial security. I will keep raising these. We need...

My questions are for the Minister of Lands. Section 3.1 of the Commissioner's Land Act establishes the requirement for the posting of security on the factors for determining security amount, for restoration of lands, and for refund of security. Please provide a listing of the commercial and industrial leases on Commissioner’s land issued since February 15, 2011 including the lease number, general location, issue date, amount and form of security required, and:

Whether an exemption was granted under any leases from the requirement to provide security, including the reasons why the exemption was...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have three written questions. First one.

My questions are for the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. Regarding the co-management boards governing the Mackenzie Valley and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, what progress has the Government of the Northwest Territories made on ensuring that all vacancies on the co-management boards are filled; and could the Minister provide background information on the current state of vacancies, including:

the current number of vacant positions on each of these boards;

how long each of these currently vacant...