Michael Miltenberger

The forest management agreements have been triggered specifically by the project that’s under consideration right now, or development right now for a pellet plant. We, ITI, the government is at the table trying to do our part. The arrangements between the business in the communities in terms of negotiating access to the material, the capacity building, are going to be driven through that business arrangement. There will still be ongoing access to existing programs that the territorial government now has that could be possibly brought to bear, as well, but the main relationship will be between...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are two main areas. We are continuing to work on inventories of the forest, and an equally important piece, especially as you look at the possibility of a biomass plant being put up that could do as many as 30,000 metric tons, are these forest management agreements that would have to be entered into with the Aboriginal governments and the GNWT to be able to have access to the material to generate the pellets in a sustainable, go-forward basis so the person or the business making the pellets is able to buy the material to make the pellets.

Forest management...

Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What we have here from 2011-2012 to 2012-2013 is a change in accounting treatment. In the past we would list it on a revenue summary, but as we have gone through all our reviews, there’s no markup or profit generated. So there’s not a revenue, we just get compensated for our costs. It’s a mutual aid agreement and it could apply to aircraft, it could apply to crews and equipment as well. So this year it’s not going to be listed in revenue. Going forward, it won’t be an item in the budget anymore identified under the revenue summary.

Mr. Speaker, in 1997 the governments of Canada, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan signed the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Waters Master Agreement. When we signed, our governments agreed on the principles for co-managing the Mackenzie River Basin’s water ecosystems. We also made plans for signing bilateral agreements between each of our provinces and territories.

It took us longer than we’d planned, but we are making progress on the bilateral agreements. This follows the work that happened in the 16th Assembly to develop a Water Stewardship...

My understanding is if there’s an agreement for mirror legislation, that once we take it over it becomes territorial legislation. If we, in fact, end up with a process where the federal legislation stays in place and we accept the role of delegated authority from the federal legislation, then clearly the federal government would have the final say since it’s their legislation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are at the table with the federal government negotiating devolution. This issue has been on the table, the regulatory reform issue has been on the table for some time. The federal government has made it clear they intend to make some dramatic changes. They’ve laid those out, as the Member has indicated. We have our own position that we have laid out that was public, it was on the website, that was dissimilar to the one put forward by the federal government. However, the federal government has indicated their intention to proceed.

The Member is very well aware, I think, of the complexity of the Dehcho Land Use Plan and Protected Areas Strategy listing sites as conservation areas. There’s a process that’s been underway for many, many years now. If there was any wish to change that, it would be done through the table that currently is trying to resolve that issue.

I know as a government we’re committed to trying to get the Dehcho Land Use Plan agreed to and approved. It’s been a long time in the works. That issue would flow through that process and would require, I think, a significant amount of discussion if there’s going...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member raising this concern and I would be happy to share with him the information that I do have on the work that’s been done over the last number of years on this issue that’s come up. The very specific question that he asked, I will have discussions with the officials of ENR and the deputy, keeping in mind that fisheries is a federal obligation and as of late they’ve been under some pressure due to deficit reductions and layoffs and such. We’ll see what is possible. I appreciate the Member’s concern and I’ll once again share the information that I do...

The accidents involving bison are on a fairly significant decline, it would appear, because of the concerns that have been voiced over the years and the efforts that have been made to inform the public, to educate them, to do some of the signage issues, the increased hunting, the tags, which I think has been a great deterrent to bison hanging around the roads. The worst time of the year is October as things get dark and people still drive at speeds that they do in the summer and often get surprised. I also understand, as well, that bison don’t, unlike other animals, turn into the approaching...