Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the cost of living challenges have been raised by Northwest Territories residents and Members of the Legislative Assembly in both the 18th and 19th Legislative Assemblies One of those challenges is rent for residential and recreational public land leases, including those that support traditional harvesting activities. The lease rent minimum increased to $840 annually for residential and recreational leases in the last Legislative Assembly, implemented over the last five years, has proven to be challenging for many residents given our current economic...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, second by the honourable Member from Yellowknife South, that Bill 74, the Forest Act, be read for the third time. And, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Environmental Protection Act and this guideline applies to the whole of the Northwest Territories, including privatelyowned land.

Environment and climate change officers, under the authority of the Environmental Protection Act, can direct or order the remediation of contaminated sites even if the contaminants had not escaped the site. The land use permits, and water licenses issued under the authority of the Water Act or the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, boards can choose to apply the guidelines or select their own standards. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now we're just trying to provide the basic services for the residents of that community. As the Member said, the arena was closed for a long period of time. To get it up and operational, there's some work that has to be done. We will work with the administrator to see if we can get the money and funds to have a position in there. We used to. But the biggest challenge right now we're also facing is the ability to find people to work. That's one of the challenges that we're facing. I've got numerous phone calls about water delivery and stuff like that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now we're still doing the investigation on the financial stability of this hamlet. Like I said, $2.5 million right now, and we're still looking into things. What I can do is I can make a commitment is that with once we're able to, we will get our staff in there to have a public meeting to meet with the residents there. So we will make that commitment moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On a number of occasions, including when the Minister from Alberta phoned me last night, I expressed to the Alberta Minister of Environment and Protected Areas my strong concerns about the oil sand tailing pond seepage and the potential release of treated oil sands tailing water in the Athabasca River. And, Mr. Speaker, the Members will be receiving an email that I received from the Minister last night. We looked at it, and we're sharing it with our colleagues, and we'll be sharing it with the communities across there.

They are taking it seriously. They've heard our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the AlbertaNWT Bilateral Water Management Agreement has specific provisions for sharing water monitoring results and reports, and information is regularly shared between our governments. For example, the GNWT and Alberta codrafted transboundary agreement annual reports using monitoring information from both jurisdictions. There has been some challenges with Alberta sharing information previously and a transboundary agreement provisions are what allowed the GNWT to compel Alberta to share information despite a dispute if they don't and conduct regular agreed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to attend part of the previous NWTAC and LGANT AGM. Part of the agenda was their awards ceremony. NWTAC was pleased to present the first of two 2022 community service awards. The first award winner was Soham Srimani. They spoke about his commitment, drive, and creative skills that has nurtured the community of Nahanni Butte. Through his administrative efforts and drive, the community has received funding for various projects, some which include housing projects, infrastructure projects, tourism, and marketing projects. All of this has...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, second by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 78, Waste Reduction and Resource Recovery Act, be read for the third time. And, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned previously or mentioned before, most of the contaminant sites that this guideline applies to occur on private lands within the communities. The site remediation process is primarily between the owner of the residence or business and the environment and climate change officer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.