Louis Sebert

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The National Energy Board was preserved as the regulator of oil and gas operations in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region through the devolution negotiations at the request of Canada and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. I understand also that Canada and the Inuvialuit had an interest in maintaining the existing relationship and that Canada in particular felt it was important to maintain as much consistency in the regulation of offshore resources with adjacent onshore resources as possible. That arrangement may have made some sense as an interim measure. OROGO, in my...

No formal request to have that conversation has been made, but it is something that I think we should be looking into. After all, we are maturing as a jurisdiction. The Member opposite mentioned the excellent work that OROGO is doing, so, yes, we should have that conversation. It is time, in my view, to re-examine this situation. Thank you.

I may have to look further into that issue, of these straddle types of arrangements, so perhaps I can handle the question best by saying that I will get back to the Member opposite.

I thank the Member opposite for his kind words about OROGO. It is an established regulator now, and I believe that, at this stage, with this proven track record, both Canada and the Inuvialuit might be receptive to having a conversation around the benefits of replacing the NEB as regulator for in the ISR area. Increasingly, this government over the years is becoming master in our own home, if I may use the French phrase, "maitres chez nous."

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Vance Sanderson from Thebacha.

As the Member opposite has mentioned, there is now a housing accommodation for the RCMP in Tsiigehtchic, which I think is a marked improvement to the situation which existed prior to that. I don't think we are looking at setting up a detachment in the community at this time. Thank you.

Yes, of course. Initially, we would have to determine whether there was a need, and whether it made sense, and whether it would be more efficient. Ultimately, I suppose, part of any cost analysis would be rent costs. I don't think we are at that stage yet of looking at what the cost of rent would be, and I don't know whether that would be part of our initial analysis, but at some point, if we did move ahead, obviously the cost of rent would have to be looked at. Thank you.

As I mentioned or has been mentioned, we are willing to enter into discussions with the committee. To my mind, the surplus has been growing simply because there are fewer applications or the applications are not eating up the cumulated surplus over the years, which I see has grown over the years. Again, yes, we certainly would get back to this committee with respect to our committee discussions with the committee that, after all, I appoint. I don't think it is necessary to go to them and say, "You must spend this money," but there probably are projects out there that are worthy of...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. As Members will know, we are advancing this project of transition of the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre to a facility that operates under a therapeutic community model. This is based largely on the Guthrie House program in Nanaimo, British Columbia, that some of us had the opportunity of examining by going down there. It was thought that the Hay River facility would be ideal for this, and I understand that staff has bought into the idea.

When we were down at Guthrie House, it seemed that this was a path that could lead to success. Now, what we don't want, of...

Yes. I suppose I can ask. I mean, one of the points of the legalization was to remove this from the black market. We will know what sales are in the Northwest Territories, and I would like to think that is money that is taken out of the hands of criminals. That was one of the major points of the legislation.

As I said, this was long in coming. I mean, if you are asking me how much the market for marijuana has been diminished by the change of law, that is rather hard to determine because it was a black market before. I would hope that the fact that now it is being sold legally in some of the...