Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The majority of work has been done in the South Slave and over into the Deh Cho. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With me are Gary Bohnet, deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources, and Ms. Nancy Magrum, director of finance, shared services for ENR and ITI.

Mr. Chairman, the Department of ENR, of course, is very interested, as the government is as a whole, and our Traditional Knowledge Strategy, we’ve got money in the budget for implementation. We know we have money in the budget to deal with issues related to climate change, mitigation and adaptation. There are concerns about caribou. There are concerns about what’s happening to the water. There are concerns about what’s happening to the land. We’ve got money identified, for example, for studies on permafrost that can help us make better informed decisions in the appropriate, affected...

I’ve gone through the list of the things we’re working on as we work our way down. We do have some funds available and a program in place to get feedback on wastepaper and cardboard. We are doing some preliminary work on the e-waste. The area of tires, barrels, vehicles, waste oil are there for another day in that we’re stretched to capacity trying to do all the very many things plus all the things we’re already doing with the full recycling that we have on the go. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have opening comments. Mr. Chair, I am pleased to speak to the 2010-2011 Main Estimates for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The plan proposes total operational expenses of $65.7 million for the upcoming year. This is an 8 percent increase over last year.

As Members are aware, the mandate of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is to promote and support the sustainable use and development of natural resources and to protect, conserve and enhance the NWT environment for the social and economic benefit of all NWT residents.

A range...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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.