Robert C. McLeod

Mr. Chair, the exact number that is in the budget I'm not quite sure of, but I do know that the fur advancement loan we paid out $408,000 for this year. But as for the exact dollar figure in the budget, I will get that number and I will share it with the Member, but it does rest in ENR.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 331-18(2): NWT Water License Decisions" and "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 344-18(2): Darnley Bay Marine Protected Area." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, first of all I would like to just point out that our vacancy rate, we have about 231 vacancies as of June 30th -- 231.85 vacancies at June 30th, and I know the Member has said that we have been talking about this for a while and I think when we gather here next fall then Members can -- well, hopefully, we'll have a better indicator of the summer students that were hired over the summer.

As I said before, our Premier and the former Minister of HR and the current Minister of HR will encourage our departments to see how we can better utilize our summer students, because we do...

We had 628 summer student applications in 2016; out of that 306 students were hired.

Mr. Speaker, the knowledge of your elders is essential and very important to tracking and learning about changes in our climate. There are observations of species changing ranges and habitats and the new introduction of species is how these changes will affect our ecosystem. ENR works with elders at wildlife workshops in the regions and collect this valuable information to help us with our added adaptation to climate change and the experience and the knowledge that they bring is very important to the work we do at ENR.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, they do have the lead role in managing Canada's fisheries including those in the NWT. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, we're responsible for managing sport fishing regulations and issuing licenses to NWT residents and visitors. We also provide funding through the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program to conduct studies on salmon, among a number of other things. In the case of salmon, this is a partnership approach with the University of Manitoba and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to...

Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure if we could set a concrete number. I mean, what I could commit to, and I've said it before, is we could either meet and beat this year's total, I think which would be an improvement, and so that's the goal we'll strive for. Again, I'll work with my Cabinet colleagues to encourage them -- to encourage their departments to bring on more summer students. So that's the direction we go, and again, as we gather this time next year I think we'll have a good indication if I fulfil that commitment or not.

HR has begun a review of the summer student program and a review will also be undertaken with the graduate internship program, and both of these reviews are being done under the Student and Youth Initiative to further enhance existing recruitment initiatives. Our Premier has encouraged all Ministers to try and take on as many summer students as possible. The former Minister of HR has tried to encourage all Ministers to take on as many summer students as possible through their department, and I will commit to this House that I will have a conversation with the Ministers and see how we can...

Mr. Speaker, the department, we share these concerns with these species working their way further migrating. However, as our climate is changing we are starting to see the movement of new species out of their natural ranges to the Northwest Territories, and it's awfully difficult with climate change for us to stop these migrations, and it's just something that we have to adapt to and try to work with and see what type of an effect it will have on our ecosystems, and we will continue to do that work and keep Members apprised as to the work we're doing.

Mr. Speaker, the change in climate is causing a movement and introduction of new species in the NWT every year. The impacts of these new species are complex and will take some time to determine how they affect our ecosystem. Invasive alien species are generally species that are introduced by people and the movement of salmon to different parts of the Northwest Territories is naturally occurring, not by people, and the salmon are therefore called invasive alien species. They are considered pioneering species.