Wally Schumann

Mr. Speaker, climate change continues to be one of the most serious environmental, economic, and political challenges of our time and it is an important issue to the residents of the Northwest Territories. In the mandate, the Government of the Northwest Territories, or GNWT, has committed to develop a territorial climate change strategy that takes northern energy demands and the cost of living into account. It will reflect commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and explore carbon pricing systems and how to capture local alternatives such as hydro, biomass, wind, and solar. Work to...

Yes, that's correct, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to speak to this based on the comments that the House has received. Upon reviewing all our positions for this up and coming budget session, we reviewed these jobs, and, previous to the proposal of the reduction of this one position, we had one and a half positions within our department for this specific need. What we propose is we've eliminated the halftime position and, with decentralization, we've actually created one whole new complete position for this in the South Slave, so we have more people serving in this capacity than we did previously. We're actually...

Thank you.

Yes. The Member is correct. That's exactly what we were expecting.

I will get Ms. Craig to answer that.

Thank you. I'm pleased to present the 2016-17 main estimates for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Overall, the department's estimate proposes a net increase of $4.3 million, or five per cent, over the 2015-2016 main estimates. These estimates have taken into consideration the priorities and the mandate of the 18th Assembly while responding to the need to be fiscally responsible. Highlights of the proposed estimates include:

$5.9 million increase in the budget for suppression of wildland fires;

$1.6 million for the continued implementation of the Water Stewardship Strategy...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In an attempt to minimize the impact of changes to the communities like Fort Resolution, ENR over the last two years, like I've said, has gone to only permanently hiring four out of the five-man crews. The fifth person for each crew has been hired on an as-and-when-needed basis as a casual for the summer.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the department anticipated this, we did a review a while back, a couple of years, on where we were going with fire crews. Over the last two fire seasons we've gone to basically having four four-man crews there with casual staff hired in these positions. We're still anticipating hiring these two individuals as casuals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes. That is exactly right.