Debates of May 15, 2007 (day 7)

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the idea is the department has been involved in this program since 2001-2002 and found it to be successful. They have tied it together under their program under the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program. They felt that this was a worthwhile initiative to continue on this work. It is available in all areas of the territory, I believe. Maybe the Minister may have further details.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Bell.

Madam Chair, I think the Minister mentioned successful since ’01, its inception. Since 2003, 3,000 students have been through the program. We collaborate with ENR and MACA. We get great cooperation from the schools obviously. We are in the schools delivering this program, working with the schools. We also work with local regional wildlife organizations. We’ve had great success in the Sahtu with the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board. We have been dealing with band councils, Metis associations. So it’s been very well received and continues to grow. I don’t think we have seen the program enrolled in every region, but that is the aim. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Ms. Lee.

Thank you. Is this a top up to the existing budget or are we allocating a budget to something that has been done without a budget?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the department used to fund it internally but as cost pressures within the department have grown, they felt they needed to request this. Again, it was one of the new initiatives that we parked until we had a better indication of where the federal budget was going. This is also a cost-shared program. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Bell. Ms. Lee.

Thank you. I just want to give my support to this program. I know that it may seem that this kind of program may not be applicable to Yellowknife, but Yellowknife is the biggest aboriginal population in the Territories. I know that in our schools, this has been delivered with a very close relationship with the ENR office in Yellowknife. They take dozens of kids out for a week or so and they teach them how to trap. I know that kids get a lot out this experience. I would say $125,000 is not enough to cover all the communities. The schools probably fund some of the money out of their outdoor and aboriginal program money. I think it’s about time that the government is putting some money into this and there is probably a lot more room here for more money to go into. Every child should be able to partake in this. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. I didn’t hear a question there. I will take that as a comment. Economic development, not previously authorized, $430,000. Mr. Yakeleya.

Just a comment on Ms. Lee’s previous discussion and her comments. Madam Chair, the Take a Kid Trapping Program, does the department work with other agencies to enhance it, to include that certain part of a child’s education is included? This is a real good program. This is the life of a child here. This is the one that will work good in our communities, in terms of education here. It has so many opportunities and we are contributing $125,000 to the whole Northwest Territories. We went to different regions in the North. We know it’s not very much. I haven’t seen anything yet from the department to show me this program could be enhanced by working with other departments; MACA, Health, Education, Justice, all these things that could get the child on the land, get the child to understand their aboriginal ancestors. As Ms. Lee said, I know some children went from here to Behchoko by dog team. That’s a real good opportunity. I heard on the radio the other day that children in Fort Smith were out in the bush for spring. Trapping is alive and well in the Northwest Territories. So why don’t we support something that is going to be here for a long time? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the department works with the school boards and other agencies. This is a cost-shared program between the Department of ITI as well as the Minister responsible for youth on a 50/50 basis, giving it a total of $250,000 for this area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Economic development, not previously authorized, $430,000.

Agreed.

Agreed. Thank you. Total department, not previously authorized, $3.812 million.

Agreed.

Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, corporate management, not previously authorized, $339,000. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a line here to provide funding for the GNWT’s portion of the Interim Resource Management Assistance Program. Madam Chair, who and what are we assisting under this program? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this is jointly funded between the federal government, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and ourselves. That is our portion of it, $305,000; 25 percent is our portion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to know exactly what are we assisting or who are we assisting, what is this money actually performing or producing? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the goal of the Interim Resource Management Assistance Program is to enable communities in the unsettled claim areas to develop and maintain capacity in three main areas; one, reviewing licence permit applications for land and water use; forced resource use, tourism, scientific or wildlife research, oil and gas rights and issuances and related matters; two, consultation and participation, environmental assessments, having potential impacts on land and resources; and, three, enhancing the ability to participate in consultations related to resource management policy and legislation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Okay, corporate management, not previously authorized, $339,000.

Agreed.

Thank you. Environmental protection, not previously authorized, $1.979 million.

Agreed.

Forest management, not previously authorized, $195,000. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If the Minister could further explain in detail, we have an item listed as $221,000 to provide funding to ensure GNWT’s interest in current and emerging water management issues are maintained. Maybe he could explain what that statement means. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the issue of water management in the NWT is one that has been raised a number of times. The departments of Health and Social Services, Municipal and Community Affairs and Public Works have worked in this area to come up with either the technical side of this, as well as the inspection side and the training side. This money is requested to effectively carry out responsibilities and meet the demands and it’s requesting two new person years as well as company O and M that is required. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this would be somebody who travels around and checks our water, or is this somebody who deals with the agreements or transboundary agreements, etcetera?

Which item are you under, Mr. Hawkins?

I haven’t changed.

Mr. Hawkins.

I am on page 23.

…environmental protection?

Yes, still there.

Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the one position would be water policy analyst for policy legislation and communication division. That’s to provide expertise of territorial and inter-jurisdictional water management policy matters. The other position would be water technical advisor for the environmental protection division to assess impacts of development upstream of the NWT and contribute technical advice on water quality and water quantity issues. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Wouldn’t we be providing this service already in our environmental protection unit to manage and evaluate water related issues specific to types of development? Wouldn’t it be incumbent upon the developer to provide an environmental impact statement as to what will happen? I am just trying to get a sense of…Are we here to verify their information? I understand the policy, but it just seems like a large…I would have thought we would be doing that through the environmental protection unit.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, during the winter session of the 15th Legislative Assembly this year, the issue of water took a very prominent role and some direction was provided to play a more prominent role in the whole area of water issues and transboundary issues. Up to now, we have had half a PY, half a policy analyst position that was assuming all the water management activities. The issue of water has certainly been cranked up the last while and there is a need now to work with other Government of the Northwest Territories departments to deal with the drinking water strategy and framework. We also need to participate with the Mackenzie River Basin Board and all the subcommittees and work on the state of the aquatic ecosystems report negotiations that is coming out in 2009. As a result of some of the discussion that took place to have more communication, we are planning to put together and find partners to host an NWT water forum. We would like to do that this summer and follow up during the winter months with a new government. Hopefully we will have a water summit that would bring in all the players we need, to bring in all the information under one roof and be able to share it. We are hoping to get issues and direction from all the stakeholders and all the governments that are involved and are affected by water under one roof and start getting our own house in order.

The other thing we have to do is we still have a lot of work to do in terms of lobbying the multi-stakeholder committee on the oil sands development. We need to have ongoing dialogue with the upstream jurisdictions, Alberta government and B.C. government and also the federal government to show and voice our concerns about the impacts of water and projects around water. There is a lot of research and communication and education and working with community and regional agencies on water management program and matters that have to be done.

So these, along with the direction to complete the Bilateral Water Management Agreement with Alberta as quickly as possible, resulted for us to review what we had. We had half a position and we wanted to target how we could accomplish all these things. We targeted two positions. One is a water policy analyst that would work on negotiations on the Alberta/NWT Bilateral Water Management Agreement and also the bilateral agreements with B.C. and Saskatchewan. They would also go back and work with some of the components of the Yukon/NWT Bilateral Agreement that need to be updated. We need to work on a water forum to inform and engage all the stakeholders in the management issues. We have to start looking at some legislation and policy review to identify and strengthen the government’s capability in safeguarding drinking water. I mentioned the water summit we would like to have and ongoing discussions to educate the Government of the Northwest Territories personnel.

The other position we are looking at is a water technical advisor that would work in the area of developing and implementing an action plan for intervention in the oil sands development projects and to do assessment on water quality and quantity, and aquatic ecosystems and the impacts of upstream developments. Also to ensure that there is effective participation in inter-jurisdictional technical committees supporting transboundary water management.

So there is a lot of work that has been scheduled and has been put on our plate the last while and has resulted in this looking at trying to secure some additional positions.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the detailed information from the Minister. I thought he was running the clock on me. Mr. Chair, I thought, if I understand it correctly, the Akaitcho are going to run a water summit coming up here. I am not sure why the Minister would want to be running one as well. I don’t know if he is competing or enhancing it some other way, but I am just curious on this technical advisor detail and then you went on further to talk about the impacts of oil sands. I am surprised you are not going off to an area in discussion that talks about reaching CPAWS and things like that to get them to do the work I bet you could make a small contribution to them and they would be quite pleased to help and share information. You did talk about updating the Yukon and NWT transboundary agreement, but I have heard you say in the past that that was one of the easiest agreements we’ve had and it’s already in place. If I understand it correctly, the other transboundary agreements right now are sitting idle. Although I am sure they are being looked at, but they are sitting idle until B.C. works with Alberta to sort that out. I am just trying to get a sense of that. There seems to be a lot of work here. I am just trying to get a sense of if it’s realistic, is some of this already being done?