Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 38, Protected Areas Act, be read for a third time. Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am glad the Member mentioned the 19th Assembly coming in. One of the pieces of advice that I passed on to the department is to try to have all of the work done before the 19th Assembly comes in, and then, once the 19th Assembly comes in, my advice to them would be to take something like this and deal with it right at the onset of the 19th Assembly. We spent a lot of time at the beginning of this Assembly on our 235-item mandate. Then we had the mid-term review. I do not think we really got much going until years three and four, so my advice to the incoming 19th would be to deal with a lot of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the proposed Forest Act, the powers that have been contemplated that the officers would have are the ability to stop people when they are burning, for example, putting out campfires or other burning taking place and ask them to put out the fire, or the officer would have the authority to put out the fire themselves. Officers would also have authority to charge people with an offence that might include a fine.

I do respect the timeline, but I also respect the process. This is an important piece of legislation, and we should be able to do due diligence.

The absence of any explicit reference to engaging or collaborating with Indigenous governments or organizations in the development of regulations for the Protected Areas Act should not be taken as a lack of commitment by the GNWT to meet its obligations to consult with IGOs, IGOs, IGOs and its commitment to collaborating with Indigenous governments and organizations.

The Intergovernmental Council has undertaken a lessons-learned process on the...

[Microphone turned off] ... get a chance to before. I do want to acknowledge the work that went on between committee and the department. We had 34 amendments that were proposed by committee. We accepted 30 of them. There were four we did not accept. Again, they were defeated, and they were brought down to the floor of the Assembly to have further debate on it, which is the right of this Assembly, and I respect that.

The act as written already ensures that the Minister will make transparent and accountable decisions on whether a nominated area can be considered by Executive Council for approval...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to introduce Bill 38, Protected Areas Act. The bill sets out the processes for establishing a protected area in the Northwest Territories. The bill lays out the process to nominate the candidate area, how establishment agreements with Indigenous governments or organizations will be entered into for management of a protected area, regulation-making authorities, and prohibited and acceptable activities in a protected area.

Environment and Natural Resources has developed the bill through a partnership process with a technical working group that is comprised of...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 59, Supplementary Appropriations Act (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 2, 2019-2020, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 59, Supplementary Appropriations Act (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 2, 2019-2020, be read for the second time. Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 59, Supplementary Appropriations Act (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 2, 2019-2020, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This delay was unintended and in no way should be considered as a lowering of the government's commitment to implementing the NWT Carbon Tax. Carbon pricing will be introduced in the NWT either utilizing our own approach or having the federal backstop imposed upon us. We believe our approach has significant advantages for our businesses and residents, including in the way we have approached rebating the carbon tax on heating fuel, protecting electricity rates, and providing the cost-of-living offset benefit to all residents of the NWT.

We have reached out to the Government of Canada, the...