Michael Miltenberger

They form part of the fire system that we have for detecting and responding to fires. The lightning system feeds into the Fire Centre in Fort Smith and tracks by computer, the lightning strikes that occur with the technology that’s installed in these lightning detectors. The cameras and the fixed observation sites are where we are surveying the landscape, and looking for signs of smoke and other signs that would lead us to believe that there may be fire activity.

There is work, of course, being done on an ongoing basis in monitoring and evaluation on the barren land caribou. We’re in the process of working with the federal government on a National Boreal Caribou Strategy. We have our own, but given the concerns of the near extinction of the Boreal caribou in Alberta, it’s taken on a much greater significance. We’re working on that. We are going to do, and will do, the work for a survey in November. When we have the numbers in and information before us in terms of the general health and population, then we’ll be able to have an informed discussion about...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Those are pieces of equipment that give us 24/7 capacity to survey the landscape tied into the various towers we have. They feed information into the system so that we can track what’s happening without necessarily having a person in the area.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t believe so. We do know that as a result of the extensive time that was spent in the air throughout the region, they did find throughout the course of the summer six dead moose. They don’t believe anthrax is what killed them; however, they erred on the side of caution and we’ve gone to the Canada Food Inspection Agency and are awaiting the results. We do know that there is concern about the bison populations across the South and North Slave and in the Deh Cho. We are in fact going to be initiating a moose survey this October to give us a better idea of the...

Thank you. I’m speaking English, not German. Nine, Madam Chair.

---Laughter

Madam Chair, I would if they were here, but I’m prepared to proceed in any case.

Let me say again, the Giant Mine site is not part of the devolution negotiations. There is a section on waste sites, but the Giant Mine site, given the size, cost, and magnitude of the project, is not part of the devolution negotiations.

Once again, let me offer the briefing. I believe we are complying with our obligations. Maybe not to the extent that some folks would have us, but we make every effort to communicate and make sure information is there, recognizing, of course, that we are there as the government. But the federal government, whose project this is and whose overall responsibility...

We’ll continue to be actively involved at the table with our staff, and politically, where necessary, to move this project forward to address the issues, the governance issues, the process issues, the content issues, the decisions made in terms of choice or type of remediation, the debate over the governance piece. We are a voice and we will continue to be there for all Northerners.

We have some very capable staff, highly qualified individuals that have been on this file for many, many years, and I take great comfort when we’re presented with the best steps forward and then we agree to sign off based on that best advice.

Once again, I would be prepared, if there is an interest of committee, to have a briefing from the GNWT on the work we’ve done and the positions we’ve taken. I would be happy to come forward with our officials to have that full, in-depth discussion.

I prefer to frame things in the positive. It means that we are actively involved in the remediation of this project; that we have committed about $27 million to look at assisting in the land surrounding the immediate site; that we have officials and people that have been working for years now on advancing this project; that we are working with the federal government and all the other stakeholders, the Aboriginal governments, to try to advance this very complex project, one of the largest remediation sites in Canada; and that we are committed to that process, recognizing that it’s very complex...