Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. Currently we already have a resource royalty sharing agreement. Of all the resource royalties that are collected in Northwest Territories, we collect all the royalties. We remit the federal portion to the federal government. We have a resource revenue sharing agreeme

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. What we see is that Bill C-88 certainly will improve and rebuild certainty for our investors in the north. I think it will also address court injunctions from indigenous governments and will bring into force modernization amendments to the MVRMA that

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When the government changed, our government approached the federal government and said that we had negotiated a five-year review of the MVRMA that would have kicked in during 2019. We approached the new government to say, “Why don't we just start the review right now?” The answer

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We were very concerned three years ago. The Northwest Territories has been an exporter of oil since the 1920s, and we didn't produce a molecule of oil and gas for three years. It was largely the result of the moratorium and the drop in the price of oil and gas. Every oil and gas

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I guess it was similar to our government. We had to tiptoe around the issue, because obviously devolution was a big priority for our government. The government of the day saw fit that it had to be dovetailed with this super-board, which we didn't support. Sometimes we have to d

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Certainly we feel it will have significant benefit for industry, because it will increase certainty around sustainable resource development. It also supports implementation of land claim agreements. We all know that both of them go hand in hand. Certainly it will be the biggest b

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It was concerning to us. We feel that we should be treated the same as other provinces or other jurisdictions that have access to tidewater. We should be given the same considerations. The only reason a moratorium was imposed, in my view, was that we're a small territory. Things

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  As I said earlier, this bill provides certainty to industry. As well, once we conclude the co-management negotiations on the offshore.... We're also working very closely with other provincial jurisdictions so that the oil and gas industry survives in Canada. Going forward, we're

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In my mind, it will. Along with co-management of offshore negotiations, we have already done a study showing that it is both possible and feasible to go north. The Beaufort Sea used to be ice-free six weeks a year. Now it is ice-free 20 weeks or more a year. Bill C-48 only applie

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I should note that if we had got you to move to the Northwest Territories we would have had a real McLeod government. Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to appear before the standing committee today as you review Bill C-88, an act to amend the M

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much for the question. Certainly an efficient and effective regulatory system is something that we support. It has been explained to me many times that investment money has legs. It will go where it can get the best return on a timely basis, so certainly that is a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. The way it will work is that there will be representatives from each region and government. For specific developments that occur that are applied for in a specific region, there will be a provision that regional panels can be struck so that the aboriginal governments i

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's correct. There is also provision for it now. Thank you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think the Government of Canada had been working on this regulatory improvement initiative for two or three years. They had been working with the aboriginal governments, and—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. It wasn't my responsibility to inform anybody about the federal legislation, but I do know that, probably later in 2013, the expectation or the understanding that they were all coming together was implicit. If we wanted to have devolution in 2014, it was very likely t