Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly
Frame Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 128)

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I want to thank the Premier for that, and I can confirm there is a signed version on the ledge website but nowhere else on any GNWT website. And, of course, our website is not the GNWT website.

There is a requirement in the Environmental Rights Act for an annual report to be tabled in the House, although we've slipped on that in the past. I tried to include a requirement for some type of reporting and implementation of the statement of environmental values to the bill, but Cabinet opposed that. So can the Premier tell us whether there's going to be any sort of...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 128)

Merci, Madam la Presidente. My questions are for the Premier. According to the statement of environmental values, the Premier is, quote, "accountable to the Executive Council and residents of the NWT for implementation of the statement of environmental values," end of quote.

So recently I'd asked officials from three departments Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Finance, and Environment and Natural Resources who was responsible for implementation of the statement. And guess what, Madam Speaker, nobody seems to know.

So can the Premier clarify who is really in charge of implementation of the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 128)

Merci, Monsieur le President. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 128)

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I want to thank the Premier for confirming that there is no internal tracking and that there's no public reporting. There's absolutely nothing in the statement about how it is to be applied to Cabinet decisionmaking, tracking, reporting, or evaluation. That's a disappointment, Madam Speaker, that Cabinet doesn't take this statement of environmental values very seriously, in my view. But Cabinet now includes some sort of genderbased analysis on climate change implications in its decisionmaking. So can the Premier commit to include a section and analysis on the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 128)

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I want to thank the Premier for reading off parts of the statement. But, you know, in my statement earlier today I said that there does not appear to be a signed and dated copy of the final version of the statement of environmental values anywhere on the GNWT website. So can the Premier confirm that there is no publiclyaccessible final and signed version of the statement of environmental values, and can she commit to fix this problem? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 128)

Merci, Madam la Presidente. One of the bills passed during the legislative avalanche ending the last Assembly was a completely new version of the socalled Environmental Rights Act, the first time this legislation had been reviewed in 29 years. The standing committee of the day worked very hard to improve the bill with 14 successful amendments.

One of the new features of this littleused legislation was supposed to be a statement of environmental values. The NWT is the second jurisdiction in Canada to develop such a statement. This means the GNWT is supposed to consider the principles and...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 124)

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, further to my colleague from Yellowknife North, I've spent several weekends out at a friend's cabin at Tibbitt and at the end of the road is a problem. There's no outhouse. People are doing their stuff all over the place. And the parking there, there's sort of a pseudo boat launch and garbage is accumulating. It's not very good.

You know, my colleague in the last Assembly, from Yellowknife North, got a pullout at the Big Hill Lake trailhead across from Madeline Lake. It's an excellent facility there now with a pullout for parking, and it's actually quite well used...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 124)

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I don't want to try to wander too far, but. So one of the concerns I've raised about map staking all along is how the fees are going to be set. Maybe when the public the industry might get to have a say. But to make sure that we don't just end up in a staking frenzy and where people are able to tie up land all over the place for big periods of time and not commit to actually do any work. So when are we going to when is the department looking at setting these fees, and how do we ensure that there's a proper balance between what the government gets and trying to encourage...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 124)

Yeah, thanks. And if the Minister needs to stamp "confidential" all over it, I'll still be interested in seeing it.

So when this thing is finished, how much is it going to cost us in terms of O and M on an annual basis? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 124)

Okay, thanks for that. And so who's done the work then for the $2.176 million in 20222023; who's doing that work now? Thanks, Mr. Chair.