Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I'm happy to send her some pictures of the junk when we're finished here. But in my view, the Cantung and the Mactung saga is another example of postdevolution mismanagement of our resources. When I asked the Minister for lessons learned last time, she said that lessons learned would be considered at the time of sale. So I'm going to try the question again. Can the Minister explain what lessons have been learned about financial security and public liabilities from the Cantung and Mactung saga? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Okay, so where are we at with calculating a new version or figure for the municipal funding gap and actually addressing that? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Details on the agreement for the sale of this property seem to be quite scarce. Can the Minister confirm whether the terms of sale will be binding on any future owners of the property in the case where Fireweed Zinc decides to sell the property or loses it? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Well, while the Minister's on a roll here, so I, you know, on page 69, large capital projects, it was $31.5 million in 20212022 and it's gone down now to $29 million. And, of course, the cost of living's actually gone up. So can someone explain to me the decline in funding here to our communities? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I have some good news. Our government says it has sold the Mactung mining property; a zombie that just keeps on giving.

The owner, North American Tungsten, went into creditor protection after GNWT agreed to take on this operation under devolution. GNWT allowed that company to keep the Mactung property as part of its financial security for its water license. Cabinet ended up buying Mactung for $4.5 million through a special warrant that bypassed the Legislative Assembly. Cabinet then spent almost $480,000 on a partial cleanup of that property, plus all the work...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Nothing about our guests at the table here, but I move that this committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly at this time. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks to the Speaker for that information. So when we say "barrierfree washrooms" is that just on this main floor, or is it throughout the building? And is it, like widening of doors, stalls; generally what kind of work is going to be done? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm not going to provide any comments on turmoil; I think those are probably best left to folks outside of the House and their own views. But just to be very clear, this is not about increasing or decreasing the wages of any of us sitting in this Chamber. This is about setting the rules for the next Assembly. And that's what the implications of all of these motions are. It's about changing the rules for the next people that come in after us so none of this is about us, quite frankly. So I do have some sympathy with deputy chairs and the work that they've done, and I've...

Thanks, Madam Chair. So the purpose of this motion is to ensure that there's some equitable sharing of the duties and responsibilities within the Assembly amongst the Regular MLAs. We have a number of committees. There's no requirement currently in the rules for Members to actually sit on committees. So this will create not just an expectation but, I believe, a requirement that, you know, Members will serve on committees in the future. And that just ensures that we have a better distribution of the work amongst us all and that the work gets done as well. So that's the purpose of this, is to...

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