Robert C. McLeod

Yes, it is, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on this particular one, the project was tendered. However, due to an error in a tender document award, a contract was delayed until after April 1, 2017, and we don't anticipate a lapse after this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the information we have is the contract has been awarded but there was an environmental issue holding up the project. That could be it. I do not know that for sure, but I can find out. It must wait until spring of 2017 to continue the project, which is like right now. But the environmental issue, I will have to find out exactly what that is and let you know, Mr. Blake.

Mr. Speaker, as part of the NWT wide-community based Water Quality Monitoring program, ENR works with community partners in Aklavik and Inuvik to monitor water quality near these communities. The CBM program uses different types of water-quality monitoring equipment to collect water quality samples during the ice-free season. These samples are analyzed and address water-related community concerns and questions. Results from the CBM program are available on the Mackenzie DataStream system and have been shared through regional meetings, brochures, and posters.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. There was a planning study that was done five years ago. This was to update the study that was done, and my understanding is that there was not really too much that had changed in the initial planning study, but this was more or less just to update the strategy that was already done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, marine pollution and litter become a significant concern to coastal countries around the world and here in the Northwest Territories. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, we have recently developed a draft waste management discussion paper to facilitate feedback from stakeholders and community and Aboriginal governments on the development of the study. We anticipate that the waste management discussion paper will be ready for review and comment by Members, stakeholders, and community governments in September. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I will go back to 2014-2015. The carryover was $60,623,000. It actually went up in 2015-2016 to $137,521,000 million, and that was a result of a lot of the federal money that we had that added to that. 2016-2017 was $126 million as the Member mentioned, so the federal money is the one that we have been working with that has brought up our carryovers a bit, but before that the numbers were fairly consistent in around $60 to $65 million. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Environmental Protection Act, be read for the second time. This bill makes several amendments to the Environmental Protection Act. It removes the non-application provision; authorizes the Minister to establish and make publicly available a register respecting environmental contaminants; authorizes the Minister to determine that discharges are nuisances; authorizes the Minister to exempt persons from complying with the act or the regulations; creates a new...