Kevin O'Reilly

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize Lyda Fuller as executive director of the Yellowknife YWCA, and she's also a constituent in Frame Lake. I want to thank her and her colleagues for the great work that they do. I'd also like to welcome Mr. Elias Abboud, who works for CBC Montreal. I had the pleasure of playing hockey with him when he was in Yellowknife previously, and I look forward to the opportunity to do the same this week.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The reason why I raise this is we had a similar situation for another mine further down the road from Yellowknife called Giant Mine, where the GNWT had a surface lease, for that property and we incurred some liability as a result of that, because there was no financial security required under that surface lease. I’m just wondering, can the Minister then tell me what the outstanding reclamation liabilities are for Cantung, and whether we actually still have any exposure as a result of a surface lease? Thanks.

[Translation] Ecole Allain St-Cyr is located in the Frame Lake riding. It started in 1989, in a portable near J.H. Sissons School, as the first francophone school in the NWT under constitutionally protected language rights. Following a court challenge by francophone parents, a separate school was opened in 1999 that soon included high school. Ecole Allain St-Cyr was expanded in 2008 following another court challenge. A further court challenge has resulted in a decision requiring the GNWT to add a gymnasium and access to the small spaces for specialized activities. This has been a long and...

Could the Minister make available a copy of the contractual arrangement, even if he has to do it in confidence. I would be really curious to see it. Thanks.

I do appreciate the commitment there from the Minister. I just want to make sure that there aren't any liabilities there. My next question is: was the GNWT aware that North American Tungsten had posted a $5 million promissory note as part of its financial security for the Cantung Mine? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Sorry, Mr. Chair, I'm trying to do two or three things at the same time. I apologize. I didn't really understand how we were going to go through this step-by-step, but if the Minister has his notes now that would be really helpful. I'll just skip through to the second question I had which is: Are there any liabilities associated with the Mactung property? I want to preface this because I was actually at Mile 222 of the Canol Road in the summer of 1981. Amax had a camp there, and they had a trailer. I understood that there was a tote road pushed into the property in the '70s, early '80s. There...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't want to gobble up my 10 minutes if the Minister doesn't have the responses to the rest of the questions that I provided. I'm just wondering how I might best proceed here.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and my apologies. I'm still learning the ropes here. I'd like to move the following motion: WHEREAS the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning has expressed its support for greater participation in the democratic process, thereby increasing opportunities for public engagement with respect to the work of the Standing Committees established under the Rules of the Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS this government has also recognized the importance of accessibility and transparency and has named the Minister responsible for Public Engagement and Transparency;

AND WHEREAS...

For some of the construction of the school, the federal government provided up to 80 per cent of the funding. Has the Minister of Education been in contact with Heritage Canada officials about any potential contributions to fund the expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate the answers from the Minister. Once again, though, I am very concerned that this happened under our watch, part of it, and my objective in asking these questions here today is to show the importance of that division, the work that they do, and I know that they have started this work to get some sort of guidelines, policy framework, in place. They even changed legislation so that there are mandatory requirements for financial security, looking at the forms of the security, and even mandatory requirements for closure plans.

As a smaller government, we just can't...