Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not aware of any specific charges that were laid on the Northwest Territories side. I know that if there were issues they tended to be on the Yukon side of the border. For us, basically, it is a good news story that there was in fact, that the numbers weren’t as bad as predicted, the numbers that the Northwest Territories subscribed to, in terms of estimates, were considerably higher than those that were contemplated and put forward by the Yukon government. Our numbers were much more consistent with the Porcupine Caribou Management Board, but there are no plans at...

Mr. Chairman, we have $153,000 dedicated to our part of the work of the land use framework. The deputy sits on the working group. Many of the elements of the Water Strategy and the principles are being reflected and are reflected in the land use framework. It is an initiative that is, we think, very close to conclusion, but I will ask the deputy if he will speak a bit to some of the detail. Thank you.

We will make every effort to have it done as soon as possible within March, but in March it will be done.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the deputy indicated, as we conclude the reviews the intent is to take it through the process to committee and when there is agreed to recommendations, then we’ll look at the policies being adjusted to reflect whatever changes are finally agreed to. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we are, as a department, spending, I believe, about $225,000 specifically on traditional knowledge. We have a Traditional Knowledge Policy as a government. We have a government-wide implementation plan. We are looking at best practices. In addition, there is traditional knowledge built into all the work that we are doing. When you look at all the money we are spending on Water Strategy, when you look at the work we are doing on caribou, when you look at the work that has been done on the development of the Wildlife Act in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, it is...

The Gwich’in Tribal Council and ENR jointly put on a conference last week. The focus was the Mackenzie and the Peel. The work is proceeding on the bilateral that we have with the Yukon. We’ve been in contact with the Yukon Minister to indicate we think it’s time to review that. It was the first one done. It was done under the aegis of the initial signing of the transboundary agreement where they’re not legally binding, they’re just instruments of good will. We now know that we’ve come to the point where we all need legally binding agreements. So we’re going to have to be revisiting that over...

Mr. Chairman, given the fact that we have just signed the agreement-in-principle and we are just sort of organizing ourselves in our jurisdictions to start the negotiations, that is an issue that will have to be resolved. I would anticipate there would be possibly some type of period of time to allow for those types of loose ends or oversights. At this point, I am not in a position to speak specifically what the final detail will be on that very specific issue that the Member has raised. Thank you.

As we conclude this budget process and get geared up over the summer/fall, I will commit that we will consider the issue of how we provide support service in this area as we look at the business plans for 2012-13. Thank you.

That was a federal announcement based on the result of the findings of a panel that looked at the work and there were some current studies like the one done by Dr. Schindler and Dr. Kelly. A panel came out and said that there were significant gaps in the role the federal government was supposed to be fulfilling. They announced that they were going to set up this monitoring. They announced they were going to set up a panel to oversee that. We do have, as I indicated, the benefit of having one of our staff on there, Dr. Kelly, who is sitting on that panel.

Mr. Chairman, there are some like Giant Mine where there is a separate agreement that will be separate from the agreement-in-principle where we have a signed arrangement with the federal government and ourselves, and then I will ask the deputy to speak about our responsibility on Commissioner’s land and some of the other waste site issues. Thank you.