Michael Miltenberger

At this juncture it’s the government pulling together all its work on its adaptation plan. At the same time we are doing a lot of work. For example, there’s money in the budget to do further work on permafrost, which is a direct area of study that’s going to require adaptation as changes in permafrost occur across the land. The government is going to finish pulling together its plan and at the same time we’re continuing specific areas of work as we look at actual adaptation to situations, circumstances, and realities on the ground.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we are monitoring it to make sure that we look at the gaps for where there’s a need. If there’s a declining need, we’re going to move the funds to where they’re most needed.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’re prepared to consider that. We’re trying to get this up and running. One of the considerations we’re looking at is possibly offsetting the, as the Member suggested, but possibly raising the fee on pop cans, for example, which are sugar and water, as a way to subsidize that particular, subsidize the milk containers, so that we are prepared to look at that. Right now, we are just trying to get it all up and running, but in the very near future we are prepared to consider how we could do that. That is one of the specific ways we are looking rather than just lose or...

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated in my Minister’s statement, this process is only partway through. We have not come to any final conclusions or recommendations. We have to be very careful how we do that because we’re one of the responsible Ministers. We know that before the start of the JRP process there was $500 million that was talked about as a socio-economic impact fund that would be shared by affected regions up and down the valley. In conjunction with the fact that we already spend 65 cents of every dollar on social programs, that there would be some opportunity for integrating and...

It would be our hope at this juncture in early days of planning and scheduling that by spring 2011 that we would hopefully have a product on the table that would set the standard for the Northwest Territories when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.

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...