Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s just the grants and contribution portion. I’ll ask Ms. Magrum to give us where the rest of it is.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for making this clear on the record. We are very sensitive to the concern about how we work with the animals, how we do it. I point out that traditional knowledge and western science in this case I believe have to be compatible and we want the best all-around knowledge that we can get. We’ll make note of the fact that the Member has raised concerns on behalf of his constituents. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, the land use framework is a critical initiative of the Government of the Northwest Territories. It is critical as we look going forward with the agreement-in-principle. It is a frame within which would fit things like the Water Strategy and a lot of our individual land use plans and our approaches of government to doing that. That particular initiative is driven and managed out of the Executive. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The intent is to have an inspection and folks go in, in the next few weeks to sit down with the community to see what options are available. The current arrangement is having its trials and tribulations and we want to make sure that we have a suitable location. We also have a full sea can that is almost full that is going to be hauled out over the winter road. So we appreciate the Member raising this issue with us and we hopefully will have it resolved in the next few weeks. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, that strikes me as what I would call a hypothetical question of the highest category. Can I anticipate when we would not ask for security or some type of bond I believe the Member has asked? I am here to say it would be very expected of me to say whether I could or not. I would anticipate that we are going to be making sure for every development that we protect the interests of the people of the Northwest Territories. We have all the protections that the system allows us to do that. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, The Government of the Northwest Territories has a Traditional Knowledge Policy that applies across the government. It is reflected very clearly as well as in our GNWT’s research agenda. As we look at the areas of study that we think are important areas of research that are important, there is clear recognition of the role for traditional knowledge working in conjunction with and in collaboration is alongside of the western science. This traditional knowledge across government is reflected in course education in a lot of our curriculum development. It is reflected in some of the...
We deliberately called the Water Strategy Northern Voices for Northern Waters because we know it’s of interest and of great concern to all Northerners. We know that there’s a strong natural alliance with the territorial government and the Aboriginal governments as we work collectively together to protect our interests and ensure that we have these agreements, these legally binding transboundary agreements.
The Mackenzie River Basin Act has given us a vehicle to move forward on that. All the other jurisdictions have indicated willingness. We intend to continue on a going forward basis the strong...
Mr. Chairman, as we negotiate the devolution agreement, there is going to be an identification of sites and there is going to be milestone times. There are going to be ones that we will be responsible for. There are going to be older ones existing, ones on Crown land that the federal government will continue to have responsibility for. There will be a going forward date from which time that once the agreement is signed that we will be responsible for new ones. Thank you.
As I indicated, we provide a support role in this particular area and we work with our community staff, our regional staff, the biologists. We provide a great many services in kind, boats and vehicles to assist. We guide them and assist them where necessary, but there’s no, once again, sort of budget item in our budget that speaks to veterinary services. Although I do take note of the Member’s concern that we at least maintain that type of collaborative approach, which we intend to do. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As we initiated and charted off with the Water Strategy, we had extensive contract assistance. It was a very highly specialized area. We had all very, very limited water expertise in the department. Over the last year there’s been a diminishment in the contract levels, especially as it pertains to water. We’ve now had the benefit of getting some resources to set up our own land and water unit. We’ve been able to hire people of the calibre of Dr. Kelly. We still rely on specialized services periodically.
On the forestry side, of course, we make extensive use of contracts...