Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up with my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. In grappling with downstream water quality issues resulting from the tar sands, our Minister of Environment confronts the legacy of insufficient public oversight. In contrast, the development of our diamond mines has included independent monitoring mechanisms under legally binding agreements. This government’s officials have participated in work aimed at creating an independent oversight body and, this week, co-signed a letter to the board calling for a working group to be set up. Could the Minister comment on this government’s commitment to independent oversight and what his department is doing to ensure it comes about? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I as Minister attended the meeting in March where this issue was at the tail end of the workshop. We committed to the process. We have been involved since then. We are still part of the process. We are committed to coming up with, hopefully, a consensus on the way forward in terms of oversight and mediation through the process. The Member’s comment about needing to do it long into the future is a recognized fact as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for those comments. I know his presence at that workshop was greatly appreciated. The government has said that the Devolution Agreement will ensure cleaning up of contaminated sites, and Giant is the epitome of such sites, but to date the federal government has made no commitment to ensure funding of perpetual care and maintenance or to fund continuing research into alternative technologies that could ultimately eliminate the environmental threat.
Will the Minister commit to ensuring that the Devolution Agreement contains provisions committing the federal government to identify and supply long-term funding for perpetual care including continuing research towards complete elimination of existing toxins? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, the Giant Mine Remediation Project remains one of the biggest environmental clean-up sites in the country; the largest in terms of magnitude and cost. It receives its own separate mention in the agreement-in-principle. It is a site that will be maintained in the inventory of the federal government. Of course, we will be working closely, as we have been and continue to do, with all the interested and affected parties to ensure that the federal government complies with their obligations. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, thanks for that commitment by the Minister. There is very little evidence of planning or clear thinking on creation of a perpetual care plan for this site today. Concerns include a lack of plan to preserve current records, document remediation, long-term care activities, continuing consideration of remediation options and fulsome public reporting and information disclosure. However, options to meet these needs have been creatively examined through the work of the YKDFN, Yellowknives Dene First Nations, Alternatives North and the Pembina Institute, and are contained in documents to be tabled later today. Does the Minister agree that our responsibilities and those of the federal government will not be met until a perpetual care plan has been consultatively created? Will he influence and work with the federal government and public to create such a plan? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, this is one of the largest environmental sites that require cleanup in the entire country of Canada. We are fully committed to the process to make sure that remediation plan is developed and agreed to, and the oversight plan is being worked on and hopefully is finally agreed to.
We recognize that this site and the responsibilities will be with us long into the future. We are here for the long haul, as are all of the people of the North, and our commitment is to make sure that that site meets the standard today and tomorrow and far into the future in terms of what is required for remediation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s perspective again. I spoke today about the creation of an independent oversight body, but that is still down the road. As public reaction in March demonstrated, people are not satisfied with thecurrent flow of information from the project team. A meeting to explain major demolition already underway at the site was given on three days’ notice and was poorly advertised. There was no proactive exposure last year of information on a dam failure and later a sinkhole. As a co-proponent of this project, this government has a responsibility and can exert influence to do better. There is a real opportunity and a need for leadership, so this Minister has a real opportunity. Will this government urge the federal government to beef up its public information efforts? Mahsi.
Thank you. Communication is a critical component of just about everything we do. In this case, the Member has highlighted a number of areas where communication hasn’t been as proper, and thorough, and laid out in advance as it should be. Of course, I’ll commit to make sure that in our discussions, both ourselves as a territorial government and the federal government, do a better job in making sure that information flows properly and that the issue of transparency is addressed, as has been attempted to do through this oversight committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
