Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. $290,000. I don't know what the square kilometres for our portion of that network of area are, but that does not sound like a lot of money to start coordinated management planning and so on. I know Parks Canada spends significantly more for similar areas or national parks in the NWT. I am just going to leave that with the Minister, but when can he provide committee with a costed plan moving forward for the management of the territorial portion of Thaidene Nene? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. We still do not have a Bathurst caribou range plan, and not one square centimetre of habitat has been set aside or protected in any way for this herd. So far the harvesters have, and the Minister talked about this, made extraordinary efforts, and they have restricted their harvesting now for the last three or four winters. The harvesters are doing their part. Our government is not doing our part on protecting the habitat. When are we going to see a completed range plan that's going to start to look at habitat protection, more than just caribou...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If we have to go and contract additional time on an as-required basis, presumably that would be a higher per-hour rate. Is that true? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In the Minister's opening remarks, and it is found in the budget address as well, there is $440,000 of new funding for conservation area planning. Is any of that for Thaidene Nene? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. We have some hints that there might be some federal money coming, so that gives us reason to cut back our contribution to boreal caribou monitoring? That just doesn't make any sense to me. I am going to leave this one for now. I do not think this is a good cut. I think it is another one that is being made for Cabinet's fiscal reduction strategy that is not evidence-based. I do not know why the department is doing this. It does not make any sense whatsoever. I want to move on, though, to barren-ground caribou, and there is a line item in the business plan that reads...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, and I recognize this is an area where the federal government should be providing some assistance, as well. Am I hearing, then, that the department is going to be bringing forward a supplementary appropriation to do this work? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to start by asking some questions about conservation planning. When can we expect that there is going to be a public announcement about Thaidene Nene being formally established? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Let's start with boreal caribou. In the business plan, it says that the National Recovery Strategy is legally required and has to have at least a minimum of 65 per cent of undisturbed habitat. The next sentence says that currently approximately 66 per cent of the Northwest Territories range is undisturbed. We have a 1 per cent margin for the boreal caribou habitat remaining undisturbed to meet the National Recovery Strategy requirements.

Boreal caribou are important. We have this 1 per cent disturbance sort of limit that's out there. In the budget, though, boreal caribou...

I would like to thank the Minister for that explanation. I suggest that he put it in the final version. It is a good start, but it doesn't really explain this patchwork approach, and I think we need to have a consistent one.

I also mentioned in my statement that the NWT Power Corporation is not even mentioned in the draft strategy. I had expected to see something for the corporation along the lines of the corporation doing itself out of a job by building energy self-reliance. Instead, we have a straitjacket approach to community-owned renewable generation that gives utilities a veto. Can the...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, the company that got the contract is Parsons, which is an American company, unfortunately, but they have done work here before. In any event, I am not sure what their Aboriginal or northern hiring or contracting commitments were with the federal government who did the tendering process, but that would be interesting information to get.

I want to move on to the contaminated sites and remediation. I know one of the witnesses talked about how the money to actually do that work is in the Environment Fund, so can I just get a bit more of an explanation, then? So does ENR...