Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was going to say, "I will keep my comments brief because they have been extensively canvassed," but I have to remind myself that, despite the fact the committee has spent countless days considering this bill, the only real public consideration of it has been in the clause-by-clause as well as some of the public meetings.
I think that this bill cleans up a lot of the issues that have been lingering in the industry. I think that there are some very progressive ideas in here. The idea of including benefit agreements in legislation is one of those things that we can claim is world class. I think that, in the end, it is going to work out to be a model for other jurisdictions.
My concern is that that section of this bill, which could be the most important section of one of the most important pieces of legislation that this Assembly is going to see, is that it doesn't quite seem to be ready for primetime. It is still quite vague. When I look at it and when committee looked at it, we had more questions than answers. I know that industry felt the same.
I am a little confused by why that is. I understand that this co-development process was tough, and it wasn't necessarily always fast. You can only get so much done in a certain amount of time. Just because we are coming to the end of an Assembly doesn't mean that all the work has to stop and you have to hand in your homework right now because it is the deadline because that is not the case. This work could have gone on for another year. Perhaps we could have fleshed out this section.
The regulations where this information that we are looking from part 5 will be kept are generally reserved for more technical details. The information in part 5 that we would like to see is of a much grander nature. It is really broad public policy. I think that, as Legislators, we need to have a look at it. I think that that is sort of a difference of opinion, maybe, between Cabinet and the Regular Members because I was struck that, in the clause-by-clause, when certain Members were explaining the reasons why they thought this wasn't ready to be put forward, the Minister used those exact reasons to demonstrate why it was ready to be put forward.
I think that, when we are passing broad legislative policies, it needs to come to us as representatives of the public and as the people who bring it out to the public for comment. I had a very difficult time trying to come up with any way to amend section 5 in order to make it more clear because it was so broad that you would just be making guesses in the dark, essentially, by trying to amend it.
We also heard from at least one Indigenous government, I believe two, but I know for sure one, that, if a single word was changed in part 5, they would pull their support for the bill. While we still had the ability to make those amendments, it was very difficult, especially when we are not subject-matter experts necessarily. I think this should be a lesson for future Assemblies on how to put forward legislation and how not to put forward legislation.
I guess I would like to try to address some of those issues that we are all a little confused about. Like I said, my concerns are around part 5. I would like to ask the Minister if he could get on the record, and I will point this out, as well, that the most clarification we have had about part 5 happened at about 10:00 p.m. last Thursday out in the Great Hall. When we were in the middle of a four-and-a-half-hour meeting, the Minister made some statements which I think would be great to have on the public record, but the fact is that that meeting, while it was public, it wasn't transcribed and it wasn't really attended by members of the public necessarily. I think there were industry representatives there, but there was no media there. It was not streamed live, as well. It only exists in video format somewhere on YouTube or the Legislative Assembly website.
What I am getting at is: I would like to see if the Minister has that information for us again. I would like the Minister to, if he can, state the objectives of part 5 and provide clarification on the questions raised by industry, including the types of agreements that would satisfy the benefit agreement portion of the bill, at what point between exploration and production such an agreement would be required, and any other concerns that the Minister thinks need to be addressed here. Thank you, Mr. Chair.