Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is responsible for the implementation of the NWT Water Stewardship Strategy, including transboundary water management agreements and water monitoring throughout the Northwest Territories. Together with our partners, we track long-term trends and monitor changes in water quality, quantity, and biology.

In March of this year, the Government of Canada shut down its labs and suspended long-term water quality monitoring across Canada due to concerns related to COVID-19. The Alberta government also suspended monitoring water...

Yes, I do.

Prevention of the public liabilities require a collaborative effort from multiple departments, including Lands, ENR, Industry, ITI, and Finance. Current work on early warning includes monitoring the health of the financial institutions, tracking trends in industry, and the financial health of operators and monitoring the environment and regulatory compliance of the operators. I am committed to work with my Cabinet colleagues to continue to enhance this important work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question. I did have the opportunity to meet with a number of the Yellowknife MLAs and talked about it. We have a draft process that we are working on. We shared it with the City of Yellowknife, but we are now finalizing it. We will hope to have it within this session.

[Microphone turned off] ...the Member, but to make him feel better: yes, we will work with the Minister of EIA. Thank you.

As I said before, we need to consult with EIA and with our Indigenous governments moving forward.

The project team met with Giant Mine Oversight Board in August, discussed the specific recommendations and to clarify the intent of the special envoy. The GMOB clarified that they would like to see focused attention on solutions to help remove federal procurement barriers within the federal government. The project team committed to bringing this forward to senior management in Ottawa on a broader scale. It should be noted that through the project's socio-economic working group and senior advisory body, the project team already works closely with Yellowknives Dene First Nation, North Slave...

Thank you. In regard to apprentices, I do not know the exact number. Right now, we know that 62 percent of onsite employees report themselves as NWT residents.

The Member is probably going to not like my answer: no. We are working with the municipalities, and we are working with Indigenous governments. We need to work through a consultation process. I just spent the last two hours with an Indigenous government actually talking about this process. We are working with everybody to try to resolve this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Department of Lands is very much committed to transfer vacant land to the City of Yellowknife or any municipality that wishes it. Unfortunately, I cannot give a firm date because it depends on a number of things, the City of Yellowknife, our Indigenous governments, as we try to work forward. It is about working together. If we need to, we will address small parcels of lands or projects moving forward right now.