Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That particular area for recycling is on our list but we’ve been fully and thoroughly occupied with the whole issue of getting ready for the level on single-use retail bags, getting ready to implement and institute the recycling of milk containers. We’ve got, as I’ve indicated in my remarks, some work underway trying to come up with innovative ways community by community on dealing with the massive amounts of cardboard and paper that are probably the single biggest substance going into landfills. We’re also trying to come to grips with a way to do the e-waste so that...

Yes, we’ll work with the Member and the communities, and as the environmental assessments phase 1 and 2 are done and we get a sense of what the federal government is finding we’ll be in a position to collectively ensure that we work together to make the right decisions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I indicated to Mr. Yakeleya, should somebody come forward with a proposal, we’d of course look at that. But for the foreseeable future, we are fully engaged. As I indicated, we just instituted the bag levy, the milk. We’ve done some serious work and are going to do some more work on sorting out the cardboard and wastepaper. We’re looking at e-waste. As I’ve indicated to the Member, tied to the vehicles we have all the drums. The other big one is, of course, tires. It’s an issue of capacity and time. We’re working our way down that list. If somebody was to bring us a...

I would take your direction, but this is the area where biomass would be covered. We’re looking at tabling in this House, I believe Thursday, the Biomass Strategy. We have a range of capacity for implementation. Public Works, when we do their department, will show that the renovations and retrofits they have done have been very successful. We’re still working with communities to conclude the community energy plans and the other thing we have to make a decision on this year is the whole issue of picking a technology to go into communities. We’re interested in biomass for heat, eventually...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would share this information with the Member that the site in question is 22 kilometres east of Lutselk'e on Krys Point and Stark Lake. In the 1950s some advanced exploration was undertaken on site, which included blasting of a tunnel into the hillside in order to obtain samples for an assay. No milling or ore processing took place. The site was abandoned and the tunnel remained open. In the early 1990s, personnel from GNWT mine safety inspected abandoned mine sites around the NWT for safety concerns. The tunnel at Stark Lake was inspected and determined to be a...

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.