Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess I'd like to get a commitment from the Premier then that the report recommendations, whatever, from this group are going to be made public and that there's going to be a response from the Cabinet to those recommendations that can also be made public. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Okay, thanks. Yeah. Yeah, look, and I compliment the department. They seem to be very successful in getting money out of the financial management board for resource management legislation. I just wish that ENR and Lands was as successful because they don't seem to get any extra money for their work. So that's just a comment, Mr. Chair. As much as I would like them to get money to do things, particularly in terms of public participation, that doesn't seem to happen. But are we actually going to get mining regulations before the end of this Assembly? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that. In her recent update to me by email, the Minister noted that for the territorial midwifery program, it's being guided by something called an implementation project charter. That's the first time I've heard of a charter outside of the actual strategy.

So can the Minister tell us when and how the charter was developed, including what involvement there was from stakeholders such as the Midwives Association of the NWT? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

No, thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I appreciate that. And it is important work, and I think we want to get it right. And in Ontario they took ten years to do this. So yeah, maybe I'll just turn to the same there is some line items in the contributions around this. There's a line item, Mineral Resources Act Implementation under contributions. It was $22,000 back in 20212022. In 20232024, it's anticipated to be $12,000. What's that money for and who actually gets it? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister again for that. This one might be a bit of a stretch, but I gave the Minister's a headsup, so.

Can the Minister tell us when the results of the learning from the response to COVID19 public engagement and the actual report will be released, and whether standing committee will be given an opportunity to review and comment on them first? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate it. I just have one more question. The northern food development program, one of the things that, you know, there was a joint public hearing or SCEDE had a public hearing I think last week on this, or maybe it was the week before. And one of the things that came out of that meeting was there doesn't seem to be any way to actually measure agricultural production in the Northwest Territories. So we give out money, but we have no way of actually knowing whether there's increased agricultural production; there's, you know, some way of addressing food security...

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I think that was a yes; that was great. I'll keep it rolling. Our continuing care standards have been in place since 2015 and reviewing that document, I did not see any discussion of the special precautions and practices necessary during a pandemic or a public health emergency.

So can the Minister tell us whether these revised standards that she mentioned, or the review of our 2015 standard, whether there's going to be anything in there in light of any lessons learned from the COVID pandemic? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So is there any money earmarked in this budget for further work on our remediation economy? And I guess I'm not talking about the $20 million contract that went to a southern firm to do remediation at Cameron Hills where nobody's getting any jobs out of it from the Northwest Territories, but is there any actual dollars in here for further work on remediation economy? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I've had two pages in the House this week from Frame Lake, Aiden Tate and David Munford, and I would like to thank them for their service. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So let's talk about the knowledge economy piece. I think somehow the name's been morphed into something called the innovation action plan, which I really don't understand what it means. But I think it gives the connotation that somehow something has to be new and swanky before it's going to get funded. It's really looks like it's really aimed at the commercialization of knowledge. I think there's a number of other aspects here, like, you know, intellectual property rights when it comes to traditional knowledge that needs to be looked at. But in any event, I disagree with...