Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The term "responsible Minister" has a number of definitions to it. In some cases the Minister themselves will be directly responsible in terms of signing documents off or being involved in the process, in other cases, depending on what the project is, the responsible Minister authorities are delegated down into the organization where the technical people and other trained individuals carry out those functions. So we will continue to play the role that we’ve had in the past, but it will be elevated from what has been described as an ancillary role to now a leadership...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Two things: I don’t think we should diminish the amount of work and time and effort we’ve spent in making a fundamental shift in the use of alternative energy in the Northwest Territories, which I think is very significant and I think it in fact probably leads the country in terms of things like biomass and our investment in solar, especially in remote communities, and we’re going to continue to make those investments.

Yes, I agree with the Member that we want to look at all avenues when it comes to being as environmentally conscious as possible with the smallest carbon...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There’s not a fund that I’m aware of. If they are charged and found guilty, in all probability there would be a fine and they would be tasked with doing the remediation. We also have our own security deposits that we have for specific projects. But there’s no fund, as far as I’m aware, that we pay into like the one we do here that we’re talking about right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We take our responsibility very, very seriously when it comes to all issues related to environment and natural resources, but with wildlife in particular, and we work very hard to accommodate all Northerners. I think we’re demonstrating that, even though not to the Member’s satisfaction. I point out that we have also, for the first time in 30-some years, reopened the harvest for bison, a modest harvest for bison in the South Slave, which hasn’t been done since the mid-‘80s.

In regard to working with the Yellowknives, we have spent extensive time and effort, right from...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

That will be a function of the boards and the approval process before they’re granted their permits.

Mr. Chairman, it’s the same process that was used with AANDC that we had talked about previously. Thank you.

Thank you. As we work on the regulations in the next number of months, that is one of the key topics of discussion among the working group members and there is recognition that you can’t manage what you can’t count. I’m fully expecting that by the time the process is concluded with input from the working group and the SWAAG group that we will have achieved a regulatory agreement as it pertains to mandatory reporting. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Waste Reduction and Recovery Program, Annual Report.” Thank you.

There’s going to be a number of federal sites, the donuts, such as they are called, such as Giant Mine and others that the federal government will maintain. We have negotiated a whole list of ones that will come over fully to us. I’ll ask the deputy minister if he wants to add any further detail.