Julie Green

Thank you to the Minister for that. You don't inspect on weekends, so I'm going to say that that's when the most freelance camping takes place. How is your department keeping a lid on the potential risks of fires, sewage dumps, garbage dumps, bear interactions, and so on? How is your department keeping a lid on that if they don't go out on weekends?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ENR. As I mentioned in my statement, there is a lot of freelance camping that happened on the Ingraham Trail this weekend. I do appreciate that we wait all winter to get outside, but gathering in places outside of campgrounds presents some risks to both people and the environment. My question for you is: what kind of monitoring has your department done of the freelance camping on the Ingraham Trail in the last week? Thank you.

The Minister makes this sound like a hypothetical question. This is not a hypothetical question. People are camped all over the Ingraham Trail. The bears are active. The lakes are sometimes still frozen. We have some very significant risks to having people have fires, garbage, sewage outside of the campgrounds. I haven't heard yet what the risk assessment is of that dynamic versus all of the words you've given us about safety first.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. As I said in my statement, there was a lot of freelance trailer camping going on, on the Ingraham Trail on the weekend. I do appreciate that we wait all winter for a chance to be outside, but gathering in places other than campgrounds presents some risks to people and the environment. What is the risk to people of opening the campgrounds immediately? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for that response. When should I expect to see this follow-up action? Thank you.

As I understand it, it's up to the public to police themselves in the matter of freelance camping, and there is no either proactive inspection or proactive education taking place with the campers about the risks of camping in wild places at this time.

No, thanks.

Thanks for that little sermon. What kind of oversight is your department providing over freelance camping? Is anyone talking to campers about bears and fire risks, for example?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The weather was lovely here in the North Slave this weekend so some people decided to go camping. I saw campers in sandy spots at the end of short bush roads all along the Ingraham Trail, and I heard there was a big group of 20 trailers by the Cameron River Bridge. Mr. Speaker, this would normally be a good news story: Northerners get out camping in nice weather, but these campers are not in campgrounds. I wonder where their sewage is going, where their garbage is going, what they are using for fire pits. These are important questions if we want to keep the off-road...

Thank you, Madam Minister. I have on the speaker's list the Member for Monfwi. Please go ahead.