Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Chairman, the intent of the government’s land use framework is to help us as a government get our thinking clear when we go to the tables with the regions and the aboriginal governments so that we can be a constructive proactive partner at the table. That document and that work is coming to the stage where I think we are almost ready to see the draft. We are working with Gwich’in, the Sahtu, the Deh Cho, as we speak, the Inuvialuit, on their land use plans. Maybe the deputy minister could speak to where we are with the Sahtu land use plans. Thank you.

I would just like to point out a fact that as these discussions go on it becomes more important every day. In this part of the Northwest Territories there is no harvest management plan for the Bathurst herd or the Ahiak or the Bluenose-East as it comes down into the Tlicho territory. The critical one is the Bathurst herd. We wouldn’t be having this discussion in the Sahtu, Gwich’in, or Inuvialuit regions because they have agreements, they have co-management boards, and they’ve got processes. What’s clearly evident here and is incumbent upon us once we get through this hunting season and before...

Mr. Speaker, I was trying to follow where the Member was referring to in this particular letter, and I’m unable to follow it. The thing that sticks in my mind was the dot, dot, dot. I have the report here. I was trying to listen to what he was saying and find it in the report. So I’m unable to clearly respond to that unless I can be pointed to where it is in this document which, while it’s before all the Members, is not really before this House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I indicated in my comments, there is a plan to renew the Greenhouse Gas Strategy for the Northwest Territories. We want to do it by 2011. So in 2010 we are going to come up with a revamped process of how we do that. It’s going to be outward looking as opposed to just within governments and it’s going to probably take a much more critical, a more comprehensive look than was taken last time looking just at government operations. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, this is a very important issue which is why collectively we agreed to spend the money we have and the time and resources. We are very close to the final phases of signing off our draft Water Strategy which will no longer be draft. It will be our policy base and then we also have money in the budget to look at implementing throughout the whole Mackenzie River basin.

The issue of adequate monitoring is a very significant issue, not only the amount of monitoring but are we monitoring for the right things. Dr. Schindler just completed a fairly extensive downstream assessment of water...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will provide the program criteria to committee.

The Member’s suggestion is a serious consideration.

. In fact, through the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee there is funds in the budget for energy conservation and expansion of residual heat and its work through ITI and NTPC. There’s some feasibility work that was done last year, but it is one of our considerations in all the planning that’s done. It’s just not under the purview directly of ENR, but there are plans and funding and such that are through ITI and NTPC.

Mr. Chairman, last year we were asked to come back with a plan to bring up our fees. So we are working on that. We will be glad to share that plan with the committee, with the Members. Part of the focus that we have talked about in that the farmers invested a significant amount of time and effort as a whole area of conservation education and hunting education so that we can work with parents, traditional knowledge, elders, to make sure that people have the proper respect both for the land and the animals that they are harvesting. I will let the deputy minister speak a bit more to that and...

Mr. Chairman, as I indicated earlier, we are currently redoing our Forest Management Plan and specifically the values at risk that currently are critical to that plan and, at this juncture, it doesn’t include as a value at risk the habitat protection for species like caribou, for example, so that we could plan for if we are going to consider looking more where the burns are, are there corridors where they can travel, where there is enough food and those types of things. It is an issue that has been around for quite a while. We haven’t reviewed the values at risk now for many years. We are...