Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Okay, I got some specific questions about some of the funding programs here if I could.

Let's start with advance the knowledge economy. Yeah, there's a big drop there from 240 to 100 this year. And I see that there's actually an ongoing engagement that I think ITI seems to now have the lead on this. So why has this dropped, especially when, you know, there's this public engagement going on and probably looking for some money to maybe start to implement and do some things? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so I guess in the last fiscal year there was a review done for OROGO in terms of looking at their needs and so on given that oil and gas activities are way way down. In fact, I don't think there's anything happening other than some oil abandonments, maybe M18 perhaps if it ever gets going. But has ITI actually ever done kind of a needs assessment, a review of its oil and gas resourcing, and, you know, the staff levels and so on in that part of its department you know, activities, to look at whether there might be some efficiencies there? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. And thanks for that response. So I take it then that if you're not community futures, community transfer initiative well, you know, I don't want to you know what, maybe I'll just wait until we get to some of the other activities to raise this again to find out who got the increase, who didn't get it. Yeah, I think I'll just do that. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Well, we've had this debate many times if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, squawks like a duck, it probably is a duck, so.

I'd like to move on to so there's this thing called Indigenous mineral development support program. And I note that the territorial agrifood association put on a recent or I guess it's still coming up. February 20232024, Grow NWT; it's a conference on agriculture. Where would Indigenous governments or, you know, NGOs in general, go to ITI to get money to attend a conference like that? Could they apply to this, you know, Indigenous mineral...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Committee wishes to deal with Bill 57, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2022; and, Tabled Document 81319(2), 20232024 Main Estimates, with Industry, Tourism and Investment. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I attended the geoscience forum. There was a public presentation given by, I think it's a consultant that's been hired by ITI to do some modeling. Is that money reflected in here somewhere and where is that work at? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that, sincerely thank her because that was a lot of good news there and I hadn't heard all of that, so. But I think we need to start to think about evaluation of this moving forward as well. So how is the implementation working group and the project charter preparing for the essential task of gathering data and evaluating program effectiveness, including the engagement of stakeholders such as parents, staff, and advocates? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

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.