Robert C. McLeod

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we have a number of pieces of legislation that are coming forward. I think we have amendments to four pieces of existing legislation, and we have one new legislation. We have done a lot of work on these. I think work is proceeding towards the goal of having all five pieces of legislation coming into force on July 1, 2019.

I think I have made a commitment in previous discussions with committee on updating them, and I think we had one update. We are looking at doing all of the amendments, and the LPs are approved. I know five pieces of legislation is a lot to...

We will look at forest management, but the Member is correct. They will look throughout the department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I said, we will go back, have a look at the information, and see where it goes. I mean the Member is right. A Minister is always looking for -- Minister, this whole Assembly should be looking at other sources of revenue, and this may be one of them. We will do our due diligence, and then we will come up with a plan from there, but then I need to know that, once we decide to do that, that I have got the support of committee and not have people running in 10 different directions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In 2017-2018, there was $30,000 spent of this money. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, because the federal government declared this a species at risk, I mean, they are going to fund the monitoring of the caribou, and my understanding is it is going to be significantly more than the $150,000 that is being reduced. We will have the necessary appropriation to do all of the monitoring on the boreal caribou, and I will turn it over to Dr. Dragon to add on to some of the Member's other points that he raised. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is absolutely correct. We have a lot of good people whowork over at the department. I think, as far as the funding goes, they obviously feel they are able to do the job with the resources that they have. If they needed to seek more resources, then they would go to FMB. I think they will continue to do the work with the resources they have.

ENR has been very good at, as we get into the information items later, getting a lot of external funding as well. In fact, I think we have brought on one person to do the work going after external funding. We...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we feel that it doesn't affect our capacity to deliver on our programs. On the $469,000, the re-election to eliminate one helicopter contract was based on historical fire behaviour, and the department proposed to reduce the rotary wing contract in one of the regions.

The $155,000 was decreasing the number of helicopters in pre-suppression to rotary wing contracts, which was to reduce the hours from 250 to 150. In addition, for the two contracts, it would reduce hours from 250 to 200. Should any additional rotary wing aircraft be required, they will be contracted...

That is correct.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would have to do some research into that, but, as the Member pointed out, in 2007 a new deal came in where a lot of the capital money went to the communities, and that may have replaced some of the money that ENR was contributing towards this. I am sure, if we did not have the new deal, then you would see the appropriation for ENR probably still at historical levels. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the Member for sharing that information. Again, it just points to the importance of the fact that the Aboriginal governments, and I'm going to use this opportunity again to commend the Tlicho Government for taking a leadership role in the preservation of the caribou herd that they've hunted for hundreds of years. They work closely with ENR on a mobile zone. This is how it's going to work. They have a lot of respect for the caribou and they've taken some steps as a government to limit the number of caribou. As you get into some of these projects or proposed...