Frame Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 36)

Glad to hear that we're going to get a map of the route that he mentions in his statement today, but can he then commit to work with his colleague that sits next to him in terms of getting us a map of key caribou habitat, and the reason why I'm saying this, Mr. Speaker, is the Bathurst caribou herd is a desperate situation, and we know where the post-calving, calving grounds of the herd are. I'm concerned about this road and it's routing, whether it's going to disrupt the caribou herd. So can the Minister commit to work with his colleague to table a map in this House that shows the route of...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 36)

In his statement, he says that a route has been identified that will provide the greatest economic benefit to the region in the Northwest Territories. So I'm just wondering can the Minister tell us how were environmental effects considered in the route identification?

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 36)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the response from the Minister, but I continue to make these Member's statements, raise questions around where is our system, and I just keep hearing these same sorts of answers. So I hope I'm not going to be here two years from now, asking the same questions over and over again. I keep giving the other side of the House some hints about some ways to look at how to improve our current system, but there doesn't seem to be much uptake.

In my Member's statement, I mentioned the Institutional Control Program in Saskatchewan, where mining sites are returned to the...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 36)

Now that we've got that clear, can the Minister of Lands indicate what is the general regime for remediation of contaminated sites that are on privately owned lands in the Northwest Territories?

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 36)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As I was saying, Saskatchewan has had an Institutional Control Program since 2005, where properly remediated sites are accepted back by the government with payments into two funds to cover monitoring and maintenance, and then unforeseen events. More than two and half years after devolution, we still do not have a proper closure and reclamation regime in place to prevent public liabilities for future generations. I will have questions for the Minister of Lands later today. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 36)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I will be supporting this motion as well. Earlier in this session we reviewed a capital budget for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment that included some funds for improving schools to make sure we can deliver on JK starting in September of next year.

I will also be looking for the same sort of commitment in our O and M budget coming forward, in 2017-2018. We have to make sure that our school boards and district education authorities have the resources to deliver on JK. I don't think it's sufficient to say that they can deliver this with their existing...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 36)

Well, it's interesting that we can locate a road based on economic benefits but we can't perhaps change the routing in terms of environmental effects, but we have to wait for environmental assessment, so I'm wondering can the Minister then commit to table a map of this route in the House, and on that map could he also show key caribou habitat?

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 36)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I heard the Minister of Transportation give a statement earlier today about new transportation corridors, and in there he mentions that a route has been identified for the Slave Geological Province. Can the Minister tell this House, is there actually a business case that's been prepared for this road route? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 35)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I again thank the Minister for doing his homework before coming into the House today. That is great.

---Laughter

Again, thank you. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources published an environmental guideline for contaminated site remediation in November 2003. Appendix 4 of that document contains remediation objectives for arsenic and soils depending on the end use. These guidelines, though, are now almost 13 years old. When does the department intend to review and update these guidelines? Will the Minister commit to consult this side of the House and the...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 35)

I appreciate the response from the Minister. I'm aware of the health risk assessment work that's being done around the Giant Mine site as part of that work. What specifically is the department doing about the offsite activity or the offsite contamination outside of the Giant Mine? You know, what sort of review of the effects of arsenic pollution caused by mining activities in the Yellowknife area on our environment and human health is the department actually working on?