Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier on aspects of our Devolution Agreement from my statement earlier today. I would like to note Schedule 7, Part E of the Devolution Agreement includes a list of potentially contaminated sites that will be transferred to the GNWT as of April 1st is my understanding.
Can the Premier confirm that we, the GNWT, will be receiving financial securities to cover all the liabilities accessed by our land and water boards when this transfer takes place on April 1st or what the schedule is? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In his Member’s statement the Member referred to the mine that was in Nunavut. Obviously, we’re not going to take that one over, but currently, through the Mackenzie Valley resource management authority, the boards will continue to set securities. The GNWT will set some securities on lands, GNWT lands.
The process that we’re following is those contaminated sites that were made under the Government of Canada’s watch, they will stay with the Government of Canada, but those sites were cleaned up, we will accept some of those. Those securities that we have identified with the Government of Canada, we have a list of those that will be transferred over to our Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thanks to the Premier. Of course, I did refer to Schedule 7, Part E. Maybe the Premier is not aware that Nunavut is outside of that, but that wasn’t in there.
It is clear that in many cases the securities have not been collected by the federal government. We’re talking about the lists that are going to be transferred along with their liabilities to the GNWT. So it’s hard to imagine how they will be transferred, these liabilities, these securities will be transferred to us in full. The Devolution Agreement allows Schedule 7 of the agreement to be amended before April 1st.
So, if we’re not going to be able to collect securities for these sites that we will be responsible for, including securities, will the Premier commit to removing those sites from the list until the federal government has fully paid up security deposits and they have been transferred to us? Mahsi.
The list that has been identified are those that have securities, proper securities. There are some sites that are very small in nature or have no identifiable contamination that are part of that list that the Member is referring to. Thank you.
Thank you. I hope the Premier becomes more familiar with our agreement soon because in less than six weeks here we will be accepting operating mines that have been developed under modern environmental legislation and it’s those that I’m talking about. In fact, the federal government has only managed to hold less than 50 percent of the financial securities, so these are major liabilities that can erode any of the good work that this Premier is doing.
So, again, the list of potential liabilities include the oil pipeline from Norman Wells to the NWT border. What is the amount of security deposit that would be transferred to the GNWT as we assume responsibility for that pipeline? Mahsi.
In the spirit of devolution, the Government of Canada has been involving us in these discussions on security deposits and the amount for security deposits for the pipelines have not been finalized as we speak and devolution doesn’t occur until April 1, 2014. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say finally an answer, sort of. I appreciate that.
On behalf of our public, there are many sites that we’re taking over and we will be taking on a lot of liability.
Will the Premier commit to providing the public and this House with a final list of the amount of security deposits and the assessed liabilities for each potentially contaminated site? For example, operating mines that we’re taking over that will be transferred to the GNWT as of April 1st and will he commit to doing this by March 1st so that we and the public have a full understanding of the liabilities, potentially substantial, that we will be assuming, indeed, on April 1, 2014? Mahsi.
Thank you. The Member is quoting the list that he’s holding in his hand as part of the Devolution Agreement was correct and it had a qualifier on there that this was not the finalized list that will be finalized before April 1, 2014. We’re being very transparent, and subject to confidentiality requirements, we’ll be as transparent as this government has always been. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
