Thank you, Mr. Chair. The balance at the end of 2009 for the Environment Fund was $1.7 million. Portions of that are reserved for replacement of equipment and for unredeemed containers. So the unrestricted balance is $748,000. I believe during this session that the statement for the Environment Fund for 2009 is being tabled. Thank you.
We’re on page 13-17, environment, operations expenditure summary, $9.345 million.
Agreed.
Moving on to page 13-18, grants and contributions, environment, activity summary, contributions, $5.004 million.
Agreed.
Information item, environment, active positions. Agreed?
Agreed.
Moving on to page 13-21, forest management, operations expenditure summary. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my first question on this relates to our earlier discussion of biomass and the need for sustainable harvest plans and knowledge. I’m wondering where the department is at on that and is there any areas of the NWT, any at all, where we have developed an estimate of the sustainable harvest rate for the forest. Thank you.
Minister of Environment.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The majority of work has been done in the South Slave and over into the Deh Cho. Thank you.
I’ve been asking for this for a couple of years now. We’ve been developing a Biomass Strategy. Obviously, that’s going nowhere unless we know what the sustainable harvest rate is for our forests. Again, I’m wondering if we’ve determined yet what the sustainable harvest is for any forest, any area of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
We can provide the committee the up-to-date summary of the work that’s been done to date. The focus, as we’ve been discussing here today as we look at biomass, is going to be around communities and sustainable harvest and managed forests, so a lot of the work that’s been done is starting to shift as we look at working with communities to put in pilot projects. That determination almost on a community-by-community basis. But I’ll ask the deputy if he has any further information. If not, we will commit to provide a detailed update to committee.
Deputy Minister Bohnet.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we’ve put in and have been successful in obtaining some resources from some of the federal government’s coffers to expand the work on the first forest inventories. That work is being completed and we should be able to provide a report to committee in the near future. Thank you.
That’s good news, but, as the Minister said, I think we’re looking at very specific areas around communities and I don’t think we want to wait until we’ve done a forest inventory for the Northwest Territories. We want to know, you know, within a reasonable time limit of communities, what is the sustainable harvest rate for that forest. I would appreciate it if the Minister could provide an update, assuming it’s available, and demonstrate progress on that file because, again, we can have all the strategies we want, but if we don’t have the research information and the know-how on the ground, we’re not going anywhere.
I appreciate more information on the South Slave. We have had other harvests going on there specific to the timber industry and so on and recovery from fires, but this is a different sort of thing. It needs to be really focussed on communities where Jean Marie and I imagine there has been some work done in that area, but I think our expensive communities that are positioned within the forest are opportunities. That is where I am hoping to see some good progress here so that as these other things get lined up, we can really get something going on the ground. Thank you.
Minister of Environment.
Mr. Chairman, I will let the deputy… He found some more information in his briefing book.
Deputy Minister Bohnet.
The community forest inventories, the assessments have been completed for a number of the communities: Whati, Aklavik, Tulita, Yellowknife, the area near Behchoko. The areas have been done and through the Gwich’in Forest Management Plan that we are working with the Gwich’in, some of the work is continuing. Also there has been a lot of work not only done in the South Slave but also has been initiated in the Deh Cho region, those large forested areas there. They are ongoing at the present time, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Bromley.
Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that more specific information. That sounds good. We have to start there. Again, I have to admit, I’m never clear whether an inventory is the same as sustainable harvest assessment. Hopefully that is incorporated or enabled by that and we can actually get to that program. That is what community business or a community government is going to need to initiate a program. I am trying to stay as focused as possible there but, again, I appreciate that information.
I would also like to ask about the mushroom harvest as we know near Behchoko last year. It is probably greater than $1 million worth of morel mushrooms were harvested there. We visited about this in other forums that the department was going to establish whether they had the authority to manage fungi or whether they could develop partnerships with aboriginal groups or governments to develop a management policy. Obviously we have learned that it is possible to overharvest, apparently, abundant resources. I think that is true in the case of fungi as well, surprisingly, but this is a very valuable resource. I think it represents a real opportunity in those years when they are there. I am wondering what the progress and state of things on that is and if we have a little bit of funding identified for establishing that baseline. Thank you.
That particular issue, fungi doesn’t come under the NWT Forest Management Act because what we have is we initiated and we actually did all the background work. We have been initiating discussions with the federal government to see some changes made to both that issue regarding mushrooms and the other one is incidental timber to both come under our jurisdiction so we could actually manage those resources. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, that is good to hear. I wonder if it doesn’t come under forestry in other jurisdictions, it comes under forest management. It is recognized as a wild crafting activity, I believe they call it in forest. I am wondering where that will be lodged. But more specifically, what is the time frame like? We could be facing another situation like this obviously next summer, this coming summer or shortly thereafter if there are big fire seasons. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, we have finished all the internal work and have initiated discussions with the federal government here at the regional level. We are having another meeting next week. We hope to have the path forward. We indicated there is some urgency to this issue, so we are encouraging the federal government to make this and do this as fast as they possibly can. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Next I have Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to talk about the forest management, just something that came up with the discussions I went to at the Explorer Hotel with the people that were invited to the Dene Nation’s open house panel on the caribou. Something that I found interesting was about the forest fires in the particular area that there was a ban on hunting caribou. Something I found interesting was the caribou. One of the factors is that caribou weren’t coming to the area because of the forest fires. They are not going to come around when there’s… Maybe it was Mr. Lafferty... Sorry, it was one of the presenters that was talking about salad bars and salad dressings and not coming to that area as the caribou were staying away. Is that something that we should be concerned about in terms of the forest management of this department in terms of allowing certain pieces of our land to be burnt up?
I know the logic behind in terms of revegetation and reforestation and stuff like that, but it was also affecting our hunters, our trappers that harvest in these traditional areas and now they are going to move to other areas that they are not quite familiar with. Sometimes you have to look at those initiatives.
I want to ask the Minister in terms of this policy that this department has in terms of forest management, in terms of fighting these forest fires. Is this something that we should be concerned about and maybe review? Are there facts within the department saying that the policy is in line and we should continue with this practice here as opposed to what possibly the communities are saying about allowing forest fires to be burnt? Uncontrolled fires they call it. It is something I am very curious about. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Minister of Environment.
Mr. Chairman, as I indicated earlier, we are currently redoing our Forest Management Plan and specifically the values at risk that currently are critical to that plan and, at this juncture, it doesn’t include as a value at risk the habitat protection for species like caribou, for example, so that we could plan for if we are going to consider looking more where the burns are, are there corridors where they can travel, where there is enough food and those types of things. It is an issue that has been around for quite a while. We haven’t reviewed the values at risk now for many years. We are looking at that very important policy. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, dare I say that this policy here will be coming shortly for the community in terms of the value at risk preparing for the upcoming season here in terms of having a look at this. Mr. Chairman, one time in my life I did fight fires for four seasons with the old federal government program and, when the GNWT took over for them, I was still a firefighter. I know that when there were fires that were initiated by either lightning or man-made, we were out there to put it out right away. Slowly we moved away from that. I am happy to hear that the Minister is looking at this important issue here. The question is, are we going to have some discussion prior to the upcoming forest season that will start in May?
Deputy Minister Bohnet.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of points I would make here is the program review is started but there is an extensive consultation process that we are going through where our review... We are going into all the communities up and down the valley, talk to people in the communities, harvesters, elders and that about those important values before we finalize a strategy or a draft strategy and bring it before this house.
The second point I would make is just in regards to the issue the Member raised regarding the caribou habitat. What we’ll be doing there is in a number of areas where we’ve talked to people in some of these important areas that have not burned over the last 30 or 40 years. We’ve asked our folks that these particular areas and paths where caribou come that aren’t burnt, to immediately begin protecting them this year. We did last year also. So we’re on top of that, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Deputy Minister, in terms of the process that you outlined about consultation with the communities. I look forward to when you come into the regions and having some discussions with the communities that I represent in terms of forest management and the issues that you bring forward on this issue here. I certainly look forward to implementing your strong traditional knowledge policy in terms of having the information, because a couple times I heard during this presentation citing of scientific information and we haven’t yet really satisfied me in terms of some strong traditional knowledge leading to discussions like this. So I just wanted to say I look forward to that discussion coming to the Sahtu on what we have to talk about here and I hope its meaningful consultation with our people.
More of a comment than a question. We’re on page 13-21, forest management, operations expenditures, $27.726 million. Agreed?
Agreed.
Moving on to page 13-22, activity summary, forest management, grants and contributions, grants, $100,000. Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Chair, I wanted to ask the Minister regarding the fire damage compensation. Have we lapsed funding on this policy? Have we compensated fairly the people who either lost their ability to trap in a certain area or around their cabins or have we used all this money up? Are there any leftovers?
Minister of Environment.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The ‘08-09 are based on actual. We’re currently not concluded this year yet, so we’ll know and we’ve got another figure to start at $100,000. We won’t know the actuals for some time for the coming year either, but I don’t think we’ve concluded the final accounting for this year, but I’ll ask the deputy minister to maybe clarify that.
Deputy Minister Bohnet.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we know we have at least one or two more requests coming in for that particular program and it will actually be reflected in the actual. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Would it be possible to, and I don’t see it here, so would it be possible to ask the Minister if he could kindly distribute this policy in terms of how you go about assessing the fire damage and what things are possible, what things may be contentious so that this can be communicated to our harvesters in my regions regarding this policy here. It’s a good policy, Mr. Chair. The one issue I do have and I haven’t talked yet with the Minister so it’s unfair to have a response from him. However, there was a fellow in my community that has asked for compensation when the fire was done, I think five or six years ago. I don’t have all the facts right now, but he wanted to know if there were any forms of compensation that he would have been eligible for. So this is an unfair question right now for the Minister because I haven’t given him all the details or information and I could be at risk here to say I want an answer, however, I want to deal with him on that issue.
Minister of Environment.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will provide the program criteria to committee.
Thank you. Mr. Yakeleya.
The other question I have, Mr. Chair, is on the contribution. We have actuals of $46,000, but we haven’t budgeted anything this year. Are we expecting some dollars on that or what is this contribution various to support natural resources and the environmental issues?
Ms. Magrum.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In ‘08-09 we had $46,000 various contributions that are based on specific requests that come during that particular year and I would expect that in ‘09-10 and in ‘10-11 we will have similar contributions under contributions various. They just don’t fit in the specific other program areas that we have listed. Thank you.
Yes, just on that there, in this specific request that’s a pretty broad, general definition, so is there an example that you can give in terms of specific requests that come in for funding?
