Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I love Private Member's bills. I'm 50/50. I appreciate the comments from the Minister but sometimes if we don't have deadlines, things just don't get done. And I'm just going to leave it at that. I support the bill. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. Committee wishes to deal with Bill 80, Tabled Document 973-19(2), Tabled Document 974-19(2), Committee Report 52-19(2), and Committee Report 75-19(2). Mahsi, Madam Chair.

Yeah, merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that, but posting this to a website I just don't think is going to cut it. I tried to read this stuff last night. It's highly technical stuff. And the document that's out there for public engagement right now is three pages. There's no references in it. It's not very well done in my humble opinion. It doesn't even explain that we're going from 2003 guidelines to a new set of guidelines. I think the Minister needs to beef up the public engagement/public communications component.

So can the Minister undertake to talk to his department about how they're going to improve communications of this now and moving forward once the guideline is finished? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. If it's not the case that they've done that engagement, I really urge that this department do that work.

I guess my next question, Mr. Speaker, is once these are finalized, what sort of public communications is there going to be? Because this will have implications for people that buy and sell land, real estate agents, banks that do financing. This has got some pretty serious implications. So what is the department going to do to communicate these new guidelines to the public and interested parties? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. These guidelines, whatever they look like and that get approved at the end of the day, I think they have some significant implications for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation that live on perhaps some contaminated lands or want to have some business opportunities there, the City of Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories Construction Association. So has the department actually done any kind of outreach to any of these governments? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Governments or NGOs. Thanks, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I have some further questions I'd like to pursue with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change on this arsenic remediation guideline matter. It's not clear whether this new work went through any kind of an internal or external review or was discussed with interested co-management bodies, such as the land and water boards or even the Giant Mine Oversight Board. So can the Minister tell us who was consulted during the development of these new arsenic remediation guidelines, and can he summarize what happened or make a commitment to make that information public? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. That's great. So public contractors get, you know, six weeks to look at stuff that may have been taking 20 years to develop. You know, very technical stuff. Not good. This is not good public engagement, Mr. Speaker.

But it's not clear what these new arsenic soil remediation guidelines would mean for the Giant Mine remediation project. Although that work was finally approved under an environmental assessment completed in 2014, the soil remediation was based on the old potentially unsafe 2003 arsenic soil remediation guidelines. So can the Minister tell us whether the new, much lower, arsenic soil remediation guidelines will be applied to the Giant Mine Remediation Project? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, merci, Monsieur le President. I spent about an hour and a half looking at the material last night. Way over my head, so it's definitely not plain language. But the new guideline would reduce the acceptable limits for arsenic in soil related to all uses compared to the 2003 guidelines. However, the new guidelines would allow Yellowknife residents to be exposed to, in some cases, three times as much arsenic as those people living outside of Yellowknife.

So can the Minister try to explain why it is okay to expose Yellowknifers to, in some cases, three times as much arsenic compared to those that live outside of Yellowknife? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Well, let's talk about that public engagement period. The extension might allow for more meaningful public input on the guideline but communications from the department, in my view, need to be improved.

Can the Minister tell us whether he is prepared to improve public communications, including a further extension, some plain language materials on this important policy document, and maybe even a public meeting or a webinar? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.