Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What I was referring to was some of the work we’ve done as an Assembly with regard to water, the Water Strategy, getting our thinking clear, the principles -- the policy was developed in full collaboration and support of the Aboriginal governments -- is going to inform a lot of the work going forward on devolution as it pertains to the water issue because we’ve taken the last four years of time to do that. It’s in forming our transboundary negotiations as well. That’s an example of some of the work that’s being done in anticipation of us in the Northwest Territories...

We’ll commit to get that for committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The money that is laid out is to do two things: look on the implementation side, which is actual transferring of the infrastructure, the resources, human and otherwise. There’s going to be a significant amount of work in terms of the requirements to meet all policy and legal obligations in our legislation. The broader work, some of which has already started, I would suggest with things like the Water Strategy, in some areas has yet to be completed. The management regime is currently under review by the federal government. They’ve agreed not to have any major changes...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will make some brief comments with regard to the implementation piece and then I’ll turn the answers on the other issues over to the Premier, who has the file on this.

There was an extensive study done after the Yukon devolution process was completed and a debrief and review to see what lessons could be learned. One of the main lessons learned and documented extensively is there’s a need to have the negotiation process and implementation process start almost simultaneously because of the time and the complexity of the issues and the need to move those processes, so...

I, once again, appreciate the Member’s comments. The one thing that’s difficult to get an average on, of course, is, while we can do it for the money, is the weather.

If I could just point to British Columbia for the previous two fire seasons where they had a budget in the neighbourhood of $50 million and had these extraordinary weather conditions where they spent nearly $500 million. That’s part of the challenge. But I take the point of the Members that the base budget is too low. We know that come July even just the starting of costs is going to put us close to exhausting our budget. I make...

There is work underway, as we speak, with the territorial government, the Aboriginal Steering Committee, to look at who would be the best people suited for the team, including the Aboriginal representative. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Sandy Kalgutkar, acting deputy minister of Finance.

The Water Strategy was developed in consultation and partnership with the Aboriginal government. We have a committee that was set up to provide oversight to work with the territorial government. That role is carrying over in terms of what’s happening with the negotiations and there’s a cost to that. We, as well, want to make sure we have, when we have the actual negotiating team at the table, that there’s an Aboriginal representative there along with the territorial government representative. Those funds will be expended to fulfill those particular job requirements and obligations that we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me the acting deputy minister of Finance, Sandy Kalgutkar.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We can go through key points on this list on page 303. The water unit staff have responsibility and involvement with the communities across the North and work on the ground in the communities across the North.

The Wilfred Laurier University contribution is, we partnered up and got, I think, $3 for the price of one or $2 for the price of one to a contribution agreement to do on-the-ground water research in the Northwest Territories on areas of significant interest and concern not only to Wilfred Laurier but to the Northwest Territories and the communities.

Source water...