Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I commented or at least made the attempt to acknowledge that Idle No More did happen and it continues. I just wanted to highlight the shining example of some of the doable things that this government can do and that’s the transboundary water agreement.
Part of the exercise of the Idle No More movement is that it drew upon the commonalities of bringing two people together: First Nations and the non-indigenous people of the North. The common interest is the environment. So my question is to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. In terms of the progress of the transboundary water agreement, where is it going and at what point should we expect the conclusion of those talks? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The discussions are focused and engaged mainly with Alberta. We had some preliminary meetings, as well, with BC and Saskatchewan, but the Alberta negotiations are the most critical. They are, we believe, within about two meetings away and the next meeting is scheduled for April. So sometime subsequent to that, before fall, we hope to have the negotiators prepared to initial an agreement that will lay out and meet the mandates that they were given from us and from the Alberta government.
Once that’s done, we have to turn our attention to concluding the agreements with BC, Saskatchewan, and we have to look at a rewrite of the Yukon agreement. Mr. Speaker, these are very important. The Alberta agreement will be a bit of a template, we believe, so that the ones with Saskatchewan and BC should not take as long as the Yukon. So that work has been progressing.
Our investment in water is going to be required on an ongoing basis. Then we have to look at monitoring, implementation and doing all this through the hard work of the transboundary negotiating team, as well as we have an Aboriginal Steering Committee that has been intimately involved in this process right from the development of the water strategy, all the way forward to the work that’s currently happening. Thank you.
My follow-up question is the Minister had indicated that more likely there will be a similar effort made in British Columbia. Can we expect a similar template agreement that could result from those discussions, because, of course, the rivers in BC flow into the Liard and into the Deh Cho or the Mackenzie. Is there a similar effort, perhaps in envisioning an end product that’s similar to the transboundary agreement with Alberta? Perhaps we could expect that for BC as well. Mahsi.
The Member is correct; the intent is to conclude Alberta, and then move to British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and then up with the Yukon to look at mainly the Peel watershed. So that would be our next step after this. We are doing it sequentially, mainly tied to capacity and the way the agreed-to work plan that was laid out. It will involve a very similar process. We are going to continue to have full involvement of the Aboriginal Steering Committee and we are going to do all the necessary work, but a lot of the groundwork, the template will have been worked through with Alberta. Thank you.
I think this government has provided solid leadership in bringing to the forefront the water resources that flow from Alberta into the Northwest Territories. I think we have created a path, created leadership and a model, which is what can be done if governments and First Nations work together. Would there be a similar effort, at some point, in terms of offshore water and coming into a management model that could be considered that this government will entertain at some point in terms of the offshore water resources in the Beaufort Sea? Mahsi.
All the related offshore issues tied to devolution will be negotiated and there will be a process triggered once negotiation is signed and implemented. Thank you.
Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
