Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks. It was almost like a Minister's statement. All good news. No, seriously, that's good stuff.

I have had one Yellowknife resident who is nonIndigenous ask about why the removal of the 12 semester limit for basic grants is only being done for Indigenous students. Have you looked at is that federal money or why is it limited to Indigenous students? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to table the following two documents: The first one, Environment and Climate Change Canada Guidance for Using Climate Pollution Pricing Proceeds; the second one, November 2022 GNWT Mineral Royalties Presentation to Yellowknife Geoscience Forum: "Financial Modeling in Support of Revising the Royalty Regime of Mining in the NWT" by Michael Doggett, Nick Dennahower, and Hendrik Falck. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, okay, no, thanks; I just wanted to make sure that that's what this number reflects and that the seniors stuff is in here. That's good. Good work. And thanks for sneaking it by your Cabinet colleagues.

Student financial assistance, there's an increase in here to the grants on page 49, and the Finance Minister in the budget addressed actually said some of this stuff about how the basic and I'm quoting, "the basic grant for northern Indigenous students to fully cover the average cost of tuition, books, and supplies and eliminate their 12semester limit for the basic grants." Is that...

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. I want to thank the Minister for that. I promise I'm not going to call them secret meetings anymore but as long as the department can find a way to share that information with everyone, which they don't do. So they continue to be secret meetings.

But there remains a lot of work and public engagement required for the Mineral Resources Act to be brought into force. The engagement report also mentions other research and analysis on royalties. So can the Minister tell us what other research is being done, whether it's going to be released publicly, not just shared with...

No, thanks. Appreciate all the information and the responses. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for her statement there. There was also 21 different surveys open only to those holding prospecting licenses. No data from these surveys is compiled or presented in the "what we heard" report. If these surveys had been open to others, there could have been some useful data generated on, you know, possible divergence of views.

Can the Minister explain why these 21 surveys were only open to prospecting license holders and indicate whether any actual data will be publicly presented? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thanks, Madam Chair. No, okay, for the one that is in place, is there any kind of I don't know, it would be nice to know if there's been a news release or do they report, do they say anything I understand that probably some of it may be stuff that has to be communicated carefully or whatever to the department but and correctional managers or whatever. But how does the public kind of know that these things are actually up and going and what they do? Thanks, Madam Chair.