Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment hired an independent expert with global experience, you know, helping governments manage resources. And that consultant found, quote, "NWT sells its nonrenewable resources more cheaply than most other jurisdictions in the world", end of quote.

ITI also commissioned the Natural Resources Governance Institute that found, quote, "NWT has one of the world's most charitable fiscal regimes for the mining sector", end of quote.

Can the Minister tell us whether her department considered hiring these other...

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to go to some of the comments from two previous speakers. You know, it was great to get the Minister's statement on changes to income security on February the 27th but there was like a "what we heard" report. But I guess I'm hoping that there's kind of like a report that says "what we're going to do" because there was a lot in there and just not many people pay attention to what happens in here. So I think there's a real need to communicate. Look, that was a very big piece of work. Lots of good changes, things that I've had complained to me by constituents for...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

I was surprised to see a presentation on modeling of mining royalties at the November geoscience forum from a consultant hired by her department. I understand that this Vancouver consultant was hired through a sole sourced contract for $75,000.

Can the Minister confirm the hiring process and amount for this consultant and explain why this work was sole sourced? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, thanks. Well, I agree with the Minister's assessment. I think part of this is because we signed onto the agreement late. It was late in the financial year and one of the things that had to be done was to make sure that parents had reduced fees, which meant capping the ability for daycare operators to capture revenues.

So if that kind of analysis hasn't been done, it's not a good we're not in a good place. And, yeah, if I if it could be rolled out again, I'd probably start with the carrots rather than the sticks. So how is the department going to provide some reassurance and confidence...

Okay, thanks, that's good to hear. And maybe we need to increase it, but. You know, I guess the department has capped the ability of daycare providers to capture or get revenues from parents. They're also requiring will be requiring operators to pay staff more and to have them trained and properly certified. Those are all good things. But they're being squeezed at both ends now. So where in the budget would I find money increasing to daycare providers as an operator subsidy or the support for them; where do I find that? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. So yeah, I also want to recognize the work at the museum to prepare an inventory of their collection. It's available online now. You can actually see the stuff that's not on display and you can read about it. You know, it's searchable. It's a great tool. And I think that's the model we should be using maybe for a public face to the inventory that we need for all of our artwork across the system. Maybe there's some aspects of that that you wouldn't want to make accessible to the public necessarily, but it would be great to have that kind of a system. Is that what's being...

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I know we've you know, we're consulting on changing the name of the Stanton Legacy Hospital, or the building. You know, I'm not sure I'd even put that as high a priority as the territorial museum, but I want to encourage the department to move forward on that. And you can just put it on the engagement page, you know, and see where that takes us.

But I want to move on to in the last budget, the Regular MLAs worked with Cabinet to increase the funding for heritage centres across the NWT by half a million dollars. And I see that increase in here. Can someone just tell me...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess in the seven years I've been here, I've seen a lot of studies on the museum, you know, needs assessments and some really good work's been done. And there's a lot of money that needs to be spent to invest in the facility. So is there now an overall plan as to how to do some of that work? Thanks, Madam Chair. And could it be shared with Regular MLAs, even on a confidential basis if required. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks. Has the department calculated what it would cost to do that for, say, P2 students? Thanks, Mr. Chair. And what I mean by P2 is students that are actually born in the Northwest Territories. Thanks, Mr. Chair.