Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I totally agree with you. To my right, I have Mr. David Stewart, who is the deputy minister of Finance. To my left, I have Cherie Jarock, who is our legislative counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Member makes a good point. There is always money for infrastructure projects that creates employment across the Northwest Territories. It is what the people of the Northwest Territories have told us is one of their priorities, is to work. The range plan will serve as a document to guide the GNWT.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This motion is to replace the schedule in Bill 42 to change the date when the carbon tax comes into effect to September 1, 2019, and ensure that the per-unit volumes for natural gas are accurate by changing "litre" to "cubic metre." Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We did task our officials to come up with some technical information, and we have a very close relationship with the Government of Nunavut. The 2017 MOU helped to formalize and support our longstanding relationship. The new MOU will focus on several key areas, including research and monitoring, data sharing, harvest management, predators, habitat, and co-management. We will continue to work with our partners over in Nunavut on the proposed MOU with the goal to complete this by the upcoming fall of this year, actually. We will be informed by ongoing discussions with our co-management partners...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the time. The Member makes some comments there and some accusations. We have worked with committee. They were aware of the September 1st deadline, and I think the fact that we wanted to get it in writing is because committee had asked us to provide it, and we did.

I'm not going to get into that debate. There are a number of debates that we could get into, but the bottom line is the federal government has informed us, and this had been out there for a while, that September 1st was our deadline. We worked in collaboration with them to go from the original July...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Environmental Rights Act, there would be a lot of technical talk that is in there. I think we would owe it to the general public to prepare a plain-language summary as to some of the contents of the Environmental Rights Act. It would be very technical, so we would work to prepare a plain language summary. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left, I have Dr. Erin Kelly, assistant deputy minister of Environment and Climate Change. To my right, I have Ms. Cherie Jarock, legislative counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here to introduce Bill 39, the Environmental Rights Act. This bill takes steps to modernize and broaden the existing Environmental Rights Act in the Northwest Territories. The bill provides broader rights to:

request an investigation, including clearer timelines and responsibilities of the Minister;

prosecute an offence;

bring forward an action; and

protect employees who have engaged in processes under the Environmental Rights Act.

The bill also requires Executive Council to prepare a statement of environmental values and ensure that departments and select public bodies...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When ENR reads the proposed clauses together as worded, the clauses would require the Minister or the deputy head to apply the criteria provided in the motion when considering all decisions the GNWT makes. This would include large decisions as well as minor decisions. If on the basis of the criteria it is deemed that the decision would significantly affect the environment, the Minister would then have to consider the statement of environmental values. For example, prior to making any decision, including every meeting requiring duty travel or every purchase of paper, the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe that the next Assembly decided that this was something that they wanted to have a look at this; maybe towards middle to the end of the Assembly, then it is a decision that they would make. As the Member pointed out before, this has been around since 1990, I think he said. Last time it may have been used was 1991, been used four times. I think we have strengthened the bill a bit. We don't know how many more times it may be used because of some of the additions. The next Assembly, when they come in, they can make a determination if they want to have another look...