Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regard to the specific question of community water monitoring, there are sites that have been established. There is one near Good Hope. We also installed sites above and below Norman Wells, as well, with all the equipment that we use to do the monitoring to detect and be able to check water quality and what specific substances may be in there and at what level. That is there and we’re committed to building that network all the way down to the Arctic Ocean, to the Beaufort, to make sure that all the communities have that same level of comfort about the quality of...

Mr. Chairman, there’s an interest by the government to be able to come to committee and do a detailed briefing about the regulatory authorities, the processes that are currently in place that are going to continue to be in place and how we’re going to refine those now that our role is response as a government where we’re going to be our own regulator. We take over the authorities that were previously with the federal government and that would include being able to have that discussion on securities. Thank you.

Yes.

The northern tools are going to be the mechanisms that we’re all going to agree to that make sense for the Northwest Territories to have at their disposal. When we look at things like protected areas and we look at things like the establishment of parks, like the proposed Thaidene Nene Park, is there an opportunity to use federal tools as well as territorial ones, the work is being done. There is a draft that we are hopefully going to get to look at fairly soon, but Deputy Minister Campbell is involved in that process and I will ask him to provide a bit further detail. Thank you.

Thank you. If we were to take out the Land Use and Sustainability Framework and go through the first few pages where we lay out the intent and principles that are guiding us on the importance of the balance that the Member talks about, if we look at the exhausting amount of work we’ve done on the Water Stewardship Strategy we continue to do in terms of its implementation and how its guided us with our transboundary negotiations with the southern jurisdictions. If we look at the exhaustive amount of work we’ve done to develop a process to, in fact, get the Wildlife Act written and completed and...

Mr. Chairman, the schedules put up by the boards will contemplate making sure that we have money in the bank before the project starts, that we want to make sure that we have the protected integrity of the regulatory process, that we have securities that reflect the need, the potential requirements for reclamation and remediation. If they want to get their permits, they’re going to have to meet those requirements that are going to be laid out through that process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’ll provide an update to committee on the Greenhouse Gas Strategy as well as next steps and, as well, with the Solar Strategy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s not automatic; it doesn’t currently exist, so it would have to be, like some other things, looked at and built in on a go-forward basis. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Our intention, of course, is to protect the interests of the people of the Northwest Territories, to work with the regulatory authorities, and to work with industry to do the things required. I can’t speak for what has been done by the federal government but our intention is to make sure that we’re not left liable, that we’re not left unprotected and without the proper securities in place.