Bob Bromley

Thanks for those comments from the Minister. On the environmental assessment monitoring side where we do screenings and then the higher level environmental assessments and environmental impact reviews, these are real opportunities to put conditions on projects. What sort of conditions are we pursuing in the order of greenhouse gas emissions to work towards the obvious need to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions in the Northwest Territories?

Just generally looking at this division, what proportion of our budget is going to land use plans, water and environmental assessment?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for that information. The regional land use programs are referred to on the narrative side of this and integrate environmental, social, cultural and economic interests. Obviously this would be important for our economic development and mineral development strategies and so on. What regional land use plans that do this integration do we have in place?

I am all for being careful, very careful, when our herds decline like that. Perhaps the Minister can consider all people of the Northwest Territories who he does represent as the herd recovers – hopefully they will recover with our careful management – and consider increasing the opportunity for all people of the Northwest Territories that might be interested in harvesting bison. Not that there’s a lot of them but, as the Minister knows, the cost of living is high. We want people to be on the land, and tied to the land and recognizing value of the land, so they will fight for it when they need...

That’s good that we’re finally getting a response back to this working group. Now, my experience is that there’s generally a 10-day mailing period if it’s mailed by the government when they say it’s mailed in Yellowknife to a group in Yellowknife, is that the sort of timeframe we’re looking at here?

Mr. Chair, there are some great mysteries out there and there doesn’t seem to be anything else we can do. I am aware that we are permitting some harvest on this herd, despite this situation and failure to recover after three years of closure. I even have heard that those tags we do permit are not able to be fulfilled because of the small population and difficulty in finding these caribou. It’s, indeed, a grave situation. I know there’s certainly cultural loss happening amongst many cultures, perhaps all cultures of the Northwest Territories, as a result of this situation.

I agree with the...

No comment.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Just a few brief comments here. I want to start off by highlighting the statement by our Finance Minister that no non-renewable resource revenues will go towards government programs and services. Again, great concerns on this point and it flies absolutely in the face of what our Premier has said to the nation, very publicly on TV just days before this budget address, where he explicitly said that non-renewable resource revenues will, in fact, be used for programs and services, and I agree with that. So I assume there will be some correction made on that in line with...

Mr. Chair, that’s all I had.

I do note that I have used both that chicken manure and the Yellowknife composting products in my garden at home and I know many have. Obviously the goals Yellowknife sets out to achieve – waste reduction and making soil amendments available – are challenges facing our communities, all of them. Partners have learned that aggressive public education and motivation are essential for promoting participation.

With community gardens really taking off around the territory and very small transportation distances, there seems a big opportunity to begin establishing the habit of household composting as...