Thank you, committee. Page 13-33, activity summary, conservation assessment and monitoring, operations expenditure summary, $8.423 million. Does committee agree? Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this the area that would include the CIMP work, the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program work? If so, what do we expect? I know that has been a work in progress for many years and I think the intent has been to be able to identify thresholds that would help guide industry.
Does the Minister know where we’re at on that and when we can expect to have that sort of information? I know this actually hasn’t started yet, so I’m not expecting the Minister to be fully on top of this yet, but I would be interested in that information. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Yes, this is the correct activity for your question. For that answer we will go to Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is correct. The CIMP program that is coming over from the federal government as part of devolution will be part of this section in Environment and Natural Resources. The staff that are part of the CIMP, the process, the committee that’s part of working with the Aboriginal governments on CIMP will come over and, of course, going forward, we have to work with our Aboriginal partners here on maximizing the resources for CIMP. There have been, my understanding, some challenges in the past, but again, going forward, we want to work with them with the program over in the GNWT to see where there can be improvements with cumulative impact monitoring and also the environmental audit that’s part of this process coming over.
Thanks for that information. Where are we at on the environmental audit? I believe there is one in progress here, but there are sections that are wanting to be completed and overdue. Do we know where that’s at and do we have funding in this budget to complete that process? Thanks.
On the environmental audit, in the last number of years I’m aware of two audits being done. They’re done every five years. The latest one was done three years ago and my understanding is that there have been a number of groups that have responded to the environmental audit. Also, I understand that the next environmental audit is scheduled for 2015-16. Thank you.
Thank you for that information. Just on that, I’m sure the Minister is aware that in the last two audits, which were very good and comprehensive and thorough pieces of work, the recommendations where never followed up on by the federal government. Now we are the authority in most of these areas. Can we expect that the Minister will ensure that recommendations that come out of these environmental audits will be actually acted on and put in place? I think the 2010 audit repeated many of the things that were in the 2005 audit and I’m sure the same thing is going to happen in the next one. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, the intention would be to fully consider the recommendations coming out of the audit. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley.
Yes, that would certainly be unique, so I appreciate that, Mr. Chair.
Just what role would this division play with oil and gas developments such as are ongoing in the Sahtu right now? Is what we are inheriting here, are they already at work in the Sahtu area with respect to oil and gas? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that response we’ll go to Deputy Minister Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This division will still play a major role in any major development projects in the Northwest Territories. The focus, absolutely, is on the Sahtu with oil and gas at this time. We would continue to be a responsible player and a major player in the environmental assessment processes. The review of applications, the pre-screening and providing comments that are directly related to our mandate, and of course, as we all know, that is through the coordination of the three departments, but primarily the coordinating function will be in the Department of Lands, but our concerns, et cetera, comments will flow through that but we will absolutely be a major part of that process.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Bromley.
Mr. Chairman, thanks for that information. Will greenhouse gasses be part of the monitoring and assessment work that goes on with the projects? Is that now automatic in consideration of projects? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s not automatic; it doesn’t currently exist, so it would have to be, like some other things, looked at and built in on a go-forward basis. Thank you.
Yes, that’s obviously pretty incredible in this day and age, and I know the Minister would probably like to see that happen. Would the Minister commit to seeing that gets done? Thank you.
We would like to see the renewed Greenhouse Gas Strategy be reflective of the place we are in terms of our political evolution, and with devolution and having all these authorities, I think we want to take that more comprehensive look that the Member has been talking about. Thank you.
The Greenhouse Gas Strategy is great, but it seems to have been a document we can park on the shelf. These guys are out there assessing and monitoring and doing on-the-ground work, so it would be obviously good and appropriate and I’m sure the Minister agrees, so I will look forward to that.
The last one is on the ecological representation network, the Protected Areas Strategy work and a lot of this has been put on hold by the department, apparently waiting for the development of northern tools. What are those northern tools and when will we see them?
The northern tools are going to be the mechanisms that we’re all going to agree to that make sense for the Northwest Territories to have at their disposal. When we look at things like protected areas and we look at things like the establishment of parks, like the proposed Thaidene Nene Park, is there an opportunity to use federal tools as well as territorial ones, the work is being done. There is a draft that we are hopefully going to get to look at fairly soon, but Deputy Minister Campbell is involved in that process and I will ask him to provide a bit further detail. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The northern tools project, there are two phases to that, and we are working, of course, with other departments on that. The first phase was to do the analysis of current existing tools. The second phase of it, of course, going forward, is determining which tools are most appropriate for the conservation areas that need to be managed through these tools. Of course, that phase will involve looking at new tools as we go forward here.
The Protected Areas Strategy and the Ecological Representative Network Plan, yes, that would be a big part of this division as well. We will be coming forward shortly with the Ecological Representative Network Plan. We know from the 45 ecological regions in the NWT there’s a small number of them that still have no representation and that plan is focused more on core protected areas going forward, so the northern tools project has to fit with how we’re going to unfold this Ecological Representative Network Plan as well.
The Protected Areas Strategy, of course, we all know from the past that this is a partnership approach, and going forward we know we have to work with our partners here to establish a process that would ensure our partners that protected areas, if we want to continue to use that term, or conservation areas are part of the mix as we go forward with our Land Use and Sustainability Framework. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Committee, we are 13-33, activity summary, conservation assessment and monitoring, operations expenditure summary, $8.423 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, 13-34, activity summary, conservation assessment and monitoring, grants and contributions, $3.335 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 13-35, information item, activity summary, conservation assessment and monitoring, active positions. Any questions?
Agreed.
I see none. Page 13-36, activity summary, land and water, operations expenditure summary. Any questions? Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In light of the responsibility of taking on more authority and responsibility for public lands and resources through the Devolution Agreement, it has always been at point at reality that what drove, perhaps, people to work together is just the uncertainty of First Nations and other governments. Recently there has been a trend towards land claim negotiations involving tripartite structures involving both levels of governments, federal and territorial governments and First Nations governments. Born out of those efforts, we have land claim regimes. One very distinctive feature is the model of collaboration of co-management.
With the responsibility now, of course, keeping in mind that the other territories that are very similar in structure to the NWT are the Yukon and Nunavut, I want to know whether, indeed, we’re going down a path of taking on almost provincial-like management systems in approaching our partners with First Nations organizations and governments and whether that’s going to be changed.
The question that I wanted to ask is if the Minister could reaffirm that the joint stewardship and partnership of working in co-management still exists. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Committee, this information does not have any activity summary for monetary. This is now under the guise of the Lands department. However, with that, I will allow the Minister if he has any comments to Mr. Nadli’s question. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can unreservedly, unequivocally commit that we are going to continue on the path of partnerships with the Aboriginal governments as we’ve demonstrated with all the bilateral agreements we’ve signed, the way we’ve done the Wildlife Act, the Devolution Agreement, the Intergovernmental Council. It is part of who we are and I would differ somewhat with the Member’s assertion or assumption that we have the same regimes as Nunavut and the Yukon. I think we have a similarly unique arrangement and structure here in the Northwest Territories that reflects the people that live here, but it is unique in what it has done and what it has accomplished and whatever we do, we’ll do it together as we go forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Nadli.
…(inaudible)…
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. With that undeniable response, activity summary, land and water, operations expenditure summary. Any questions? Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to be clear. What has been the change with the shift of this section to the new section on water resources in terms of our ability to actually regulate use of water? For example, with the fracking applications that we see, we’ve already seen the application for Conoco that’s fracking now and all of a sudden they’ve hardly gotten along on their first one and they’re already upping their requirements dramatically. Eventually much of that water will be stored in perpetuity out of the ecosystem. Does this department now have authority, or will it be developing authority to actually regulate that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, working with the boards, we will have authority to regulate the water.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Bromley.
I’ll leave it at that, Mr. Chair. We’ve already talked about revenue from this, as well, and so on. So, I’ll leave it at that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Committee, you’re on 13-36, activity summary, land and water, operations expenditure summary. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 13-37 again is an activity summary, land and water, grants and contributions. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, 13-38, information item, land and water, active positions. Again, any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 13-39, information item, lease commitments – infrastructure. Any questions?
Agreed.
Seeing none, 13-40, information item, Environment Fund. Any questions? Mr. Bromley.
