Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Negotiations towards the establishment of a bilateral water agreement currently are under way with Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is conducting a legal review of the intention document, and that review is ongoing. Negotiations will continue once that review is complete. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Our officials will ensure that the process is clearly and consistently communicated across all the GNWT departments and all regions of the NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT, we fully support our employees in their efforts to access support services, so they can safely address the broad spectrum of mental wellness issues related to the impacts of residential school, but by doing so, we are bound by the lead provisions in our collective agreement. For example, for employees accessing counselling services in Yellowknife, they may access up to two hours of casual leave with pay to attend the counselling session. When accessing a recurring counselling session, there is a possibility of accessing up to a maximum of a one day of casual...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I share the Member's concerns about the Nutrition North program. We are glad that we are able to help many communities with the community assistance program. I think we have helped some communities get some different types of meat in when the caribou are not readily available. That is there. I think we have also helped with the Member's riding in paying for part of a charter last year, or paying for the charter. As far as a long-term agreement, it is application-based, but I think we have demonstrated in the past that we are more than happy to assist the community. I am...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not sure if we have actually reached out to them. If it is an issue that is concerning the community, then they would have a conversation with our folks there. If they want to have a conversation, we are more than willing to sit down with them. Actually, as to whether we went and called them or not, I am not quite sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's not like we're trying to make work, or anything like that.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When ENR had identified the Fire Boss and not the potential savings that were going to be realized, it came back to the FMB and asked if it would be able to defer that and they would find other sources of reductions. They did, and we approved that. All the other departments within the GNWT had met their obligations. Because we had asked for a waiver on the Fire Boss potential savings, that is the reason we came up with this.

As we go forward now into the next budget, I think with some evidence we have on the actual cost of operating the Fire Boss, I think the numbers that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have the Mackenzie Population. I guess that would be by Fort Providence. The Nahanni Population would be in Fort Smith, and then we have the Slave River Lowlands Population. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is it's about $1.2 million for this fiscal year.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I directed the department after we've had some conversations with many of the Aboriginal partners on coming forward with a plan to take some initiative with the caribou issue. Part of that plan, I think, would be travelling to the regions and chatting with the different Aboriginal groups, and getting their input and coming up with a bit of a plan. That's how we want to deal with the caribou issue collaboratively. We've already mentioned the Tlicho, and hats off to the Tlicho. They showed tremendous leadership in trying to deal with the caribou issue. As far as the...