Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to ask the Minister: as we all know, we have some challenges with population of caribou herds and I want to ensure that we get developing management plans here for our wildlife. As we all know, caribou is the priority right now, and I just want to know what's the status of that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Regarding the population of the barren-ground caribou herds in management plans, for the Bluenose-West, the Bluenose-East, the Cape Bathurst herds, the boards that are the primary managers for those herds have developed a management plan for those herds. The management plans are being finalized at this time. For the Porcupine herd, of course, there's been a management plan in place for a number of years and the board and the partner there are implementing that management plan. For further down in the southern part of the Territories regarding the Bathurst, at this point we do have a committee underway. We hope to have the committee established by this fall. That committee will be tasked with the development of a management plan for the Bathurst herd. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Blake.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Usually on these boards, we always have one designate for GNWT or all the signatories of the herds there. I just want to ensure that our member is communicating well with ENR or the department because, for example, I've noticed that PCMB… I sat on the board when the management plan was developed. It showed that the population is 198,000 which is getting to the point of overpopulation. We have to ensure that our member is aware of this and that brings this up its board meetings. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We continue to provide all the information that we gather as a department on monitoring and management of the Porcupine herd and the other herds, and all our information that we have, all our datasets, et cetera, are available to all of the boards. We certainly encourage our Members as well as the Aboriginal government members to share that information, not just internally with the board but also to the communities, to the academic institutions, et cetera. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Next on the list is Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my questions are alongside of Mr. Blake's there. I see the actuals for 2014-15 are a bit higher than the 2016-17 main estimates. I'm just wondering if that will have an impact on co-management with Aboriginal groups for conservation and caribou management plans across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Mr. Campbell?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The difference between the two years is primarily suppression funding, so we're hoping to maintain our contributions to the co-management boards. At this point I am certainly not aware that we're reducing the funding that's for the implementation of the land claim agreements. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That answers my question. Thank you for that.
Thank you. Any further comments or questions on this section? Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask, when are our wood bison management plans expected to be complete. As I understand the wood bison, their designation meant that they're... I think they've reached a category of being a species at risk or threatened. If we can have an update. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The designation federally for wood bison is threatened, and just recently territorially with our species at risk legislation they've been listed as threatened as well and that, of course, both processes trigger recovery plans or management plans. In the cases of the three herds for the Northwest Territories we do have the management plan completed for the Mackenzie herd. We're underway, quite advanced actually, for the Nahanni and the Slave River Lowlands herd. My understanding is we expect those two management plans to also be completed within this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just in terms of certainty, I mean, within the Nahanni, Liard, and the Mackenzie herd, you know, we have a matter where we don't have final agreements with the Aboriginal governments. I want to understand how the department is engaging communities in terms of ensuring their involvement with developing management plans for bison. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has established committees for the development of these management plans. Those committees consist of representatives of the Aboriginal governments as well as the residents of the Northwest Territories, and it's through that process that we're ensuring engagement with the communities that have these herds. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Nadli. Nothing further. Committee, I recommend that we continue with the detail for conservation, assessment and monitoring before going back to the activity total for that division. I think if we do that for every division it might make more sense. If there's any questions on the active positions on page 85. Questions or comments? No. Seeing none. Well, it appears we're done that division, so back to page 83, conservation, assessment and monitoring, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $7,828,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Moving on to corporate management. The operations expenditures summary is on page 87, but we will proceed to discuss the detail starting on page 88. Any comments on page 88, corporate management, grants, contributions and transfers? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In his opening remarks, the Minister said that one of the focuses of the department was to improve food security by encouraging local food production. Could he tell me in what segment of the budget I would find that referenced? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. Campbell?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On food security, our plan is to develop a country food strategy and what we're doing is not using a budget out of a specific activity, but to use money that's throughout the region under the traditional economy program that was given back to Environment and Natural Resources last fiscal year. Also with that funding we are working with others on partnering to gain more resources towards developing the country food strategy, which, again, the end result will be hopefully more opportunities for the residents of the Northwest Territories to take advantage and use more of the country foods in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for that explanation. Are we talking about providing the tools to people to access hunting and fishing and gathering and other sources of country food? Is that the thrust of the program? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Ms. Kelly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The intent is to work with our partners in the NWT as well as some of the others who have interest in this type of work and come up collaboratively with a country food strategy and work with the different divisions within ENR who have interest in this subject matter. There's already ongoing discussions related to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Kelly. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could I learn who the partners are, please? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Ms. Kelly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those discussions are ongoing but right now they include some NGOs, some potential funders, and we're working to develop a process for Aboriginal governments and communities to be involved. This is all at the beginning stages. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Kelly. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could I please just have in a simple form what the purpose of the country food strategy is? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Ms. Kelly.
The purpose is to promote the harvesting and use and consumption of country foods in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Kelly. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witness for her answer. Can we get a ballpark idea of when the country food strategy might be complete? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Ms. Kelly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are working on a plan right now for developing that so I don't have a concrete answer right now. As we develop the plan, we would be happy to provide that information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Kelly. Nothing further. Any other comments or questions on page 88. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am not sure where to ask this but it is presumably somewhere under corporate management. I guess I see a policy in strategic planning function for this part of ENR. I am just wondering if someone from the department can tell us a little bit about what sort of legislative proposals they have in the hopper and when we might get to see some of those. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we have five legislative proposals that we are developing at this time. Those are the Waters Act, the Forest Management Act, the Environmental Protection Act, the Environmental Rights Act, and an act that we are going to develop for the management of the conservation and protected areas that we hope to establish over the next while. In some ways there would be some mirroring of the Territorial Parks Act. However, at the end of the day, we will have two pieces of legislation there. The Territorial Parks Act will govern recreational wayside parks. Other types of parks or conservation areas will be governed by this new act that we will develop for conservation areas. I think I have captured all five, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I was keeping my own checklist. I have four out of five right, so I appreciate the response from the deputy minister. Any idea when we might start to see some of these move forward? The reason why I am asking this is particularly for Thaidene Nene National Park we need to have that legislation in place for that proposal to move forward. While we heard some discussion in the House earlier today about morel harvesting and so on. I think there is some pressure building to get some of these pieces of legislation moving forward. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Campbell.
