Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, and I am very mindful of the Minister's opening remarks here about clarifying authority and ensuring Northerners are able to make decisions that support sustainable development. All of these things are good things that he said, but setting a floor for or at least requiring that there is a floor for when public hearings should be held, this clause doesn't do that. It just says it's up to the discretion of the regulator on a case-by-case basis, perhaps. I am not sure how this actually creates any certainty or clarity moving forward as to when a public hearing might actually be held. The reason why I raise this again is Northerners are used to water licensing, where there is a class A, class B water licences. A class B water licence, the thresholds for those are set out by regulation. Those thresholds require hearings on class A licences and amendments to class A licences. Class B licences, no problem; go ahead, and the board can issue a licence after it gives consideration. However, there is no floor here; there is no requirement for a floor. I say this because that is the kind of system that Northerners are used to through our co-management approach, is having a floor and setting clear expectations of when a hearing is going to be required. This bill does not do that, and maybe I would just ask the Minister why that certainty, that clarity is not provided. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What I am going to say about this is these guidance notes will provide guidance when we move forward with this bill, and this will also allow for a public engagement process, so I do not see the need for doing this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. O'Reilly.

Yes, thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, so what I will say is that this bill does not deliver on the made-in-the-North approach in terms of providing certainty and clarity as to a requirement for the regulator to develop that list. It may happen. That's great, but there is no requirement in the bill for that to happen, so I don't think we have delivered on the promise. Thanks, Mr. Chair, and that is all I have for this clause. Thank you.

Thank you. Clause 5?

Thank you, committee. Clause 6. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I move -- or shall we wait until the motion is on the floor? I want to move this motion. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

If you have a motion to move, you can move the motion and the motion will be distributed after it is moved. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I move that clause 6 of Bill 37 be amended in proposed subclause 20.1(1) by striking out "in accordance with any applicable regulations" and substituting "including: (a) a list of all licences and authorizations issued under section 10 during the fiscal year, including the recipient of the licence or authorization; (b) a list of all declarations made under section 15 during that fiscal year; (c) a list of all certificates received under section 16 during that fiscal year; (d) a list of the information be made available to the public by the Regulator under section 22 during that fiscal year; (e) a list of all production orders made under section 55 during that fiscal year; (f) a list of any spills reported under section 62 during that fiscal year; (g) a list of all proofs of financial responsibility provided under section 64 during that fiscal year; (h) a summary of the activities of the committee during that fiscal year; (i) a summary of tolls and tariffs activity under part 1 during the fiscal year; (j) a summary of any inquiries held during that fiscal year; (k) a summary of all appeals heard during that fiscal year; and (l) a summary of all enforcement activities during that fiscal year." Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So all of this is being done in a very compressed time frame, of course, and I want to recognize that the regulator, OROGO, as it's called, the Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations, does produce an annual report. That's a good thing. This bill does contain a clause that would require the regulator, not just "may", the regulator "shall" within four months after the end of each fiscal year submit to the Minister a report on its activities, essentially.

What the purpose of this motion is, is to spell out what the content of that report might start to look like; and, in fact, some of these things are actually contained in the report that OROGO has voluntarily put together. So the way this was put together was we asked our law clerk to go through the bill to find out where clear permits, licenses, authorizations, decisions had been made with regard to oil and gas operations and put together that list for us, and that list was then provided to committee. We considered it. We felt that it was in the public interest to be more prescriptive in terms of the content of the annual report, just as we've done with a number of other bills that are before this House.

I guess it went back and forth between our department and our staff with the committee a few times. Unfortunately, we ran out of time. I wanted to bring this forward today so that it could receive consideration by the House, so that's the purpose of bringing this forward, and I am interested to hear what the Minister has to say about this more prescriptive list of what should be in the annual report. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. To the motion. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm wondering if I can inquire with our law clerk: part 3 of clause 6 says, "The Commissioner and Executive Council may make regulations for the purposes of the section prescribing form or content of the report." Is it conceivable that the details of this amendment that is before the House right now could be accommodated with clause 3? Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Law Clerk.

Thank you. Mr. Testart.

Thank you kindly. Speaking to the motion, I think that there is, of course, a real need for independent regulators in any jurisdiction, but these annual reports are important for the public's right to know about what regulators have been doing. I know there has been some concern that a prescriptive list is somehow impinging on the independence of the regulator, but I don't think that's, in fact, true in this case. As the honourable Member for Frame Lake said, this is laying out the decision points that are already in existence in the act and ensuring that there is guidance in the issuance of these reports, and that the public will have a right-to-know around all of these points.

I think it's entirely appropriate for the Legislature to be setting a standard for the regulator to follow. They could still be, of course, independent in their decision-making and independent in their governance. This is just setting out a very clear statutory requirement of what the public can expect in terms of annual reporting.

I see nothing problematic with this motion, and I will be supporting it. Thank you.

Thank you. To the motion. Would the mover of the motion like to close the debate on the motion? Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I guess I had hoped to hear from the Minister on whether this was going to work or not, but we're not going to hear that until we get to a vote. Is that the procedure here?

Apparently the Minister was waving his arm around and I missed it, so I will give the Minister time to speak to the motion.

Good minister.

---Laughter

If there is a need to require specific content in the future, Bill 37 is required to have requirements related to the form or the content of the report outlined in the regulations. ITI staff has spoken with OROGO and the NEB regarding the proposed items that would be required under this motion, and OROGO and the NEB have raised concerns regarding the following: the onerous administrative burden created by some of these items; the lack of clarity and appropriateness of some of these items; duplication between certain items; and an incorrect statutory reference.

It is also not clear how the new confidentiality provision proposed in Bills 36 and 37 will apply and intersect with this motion to require specific content, some of which may be confidential, to be included in the regulator's report. Thank you, Mr. Chair.