In my Member’s statement I talked about the water, and I want to ask the Minister about the water usage. The oil and gas sector has over 100 applications for water permits. We know Canada has tried to cut back on the monitoring.
Do we have the capacity to take over these positions and who are our front-line monitors? ENR has the responsibility. I wanted to ask the Minister in regard to these two questions.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have the responsibility and the capacity. Coming out of the Water Strategy that took four years to do, there were two major issues. One was get the transboundary agreements done with Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the Yukon, and the other one was to come up with some good water monitoring, community-based water monitoring so we could do the work at the community level, work with the communities, which we’ve done, incorporated traditional knowledge, which we have done, to set up a community-based water monitoring system that would allow us to take the best equipment we can have with local folks that have been trained to gather that data so that we can start assessing and doing that water monitoring at the community level.
Specifically, I point out that there are four sites at Norman Wells, two on the Mackenzie River upstream in Norman Wells and downstream in Norman Wells by Radar Island, and two additional sites on Bosworth Creek. In addition, there are two sites at Fort Good Hope, the Mackenzie River up the Ramparts, the Rabbit Skin River. There is also one site at the Sans Sault Rapids on the Mackenzie River, one site on the Carcajou River, near the mouth, five sites at and near Tulita, the Mackenzie River at Tulita, the Great Bear River at Tulita, McKay Creek near to the mouth, Slater River at the mouth, and Bog Creek at the mouth. There is other ongoing monitoring that is associated with the enforcement of water licences and the investigation of spill activities and incidents.
That’s an impressive list of monitoring for water quality in the Sahtu. The Minister rapidly fired off 13 sites in and around the communities that are looking forward to it.
I want to ask the Minister, in our land claims under Chapter 20 is the water rights and management of the Sahtu Land Claim Agreement. Section 21.8, I believe, talks about the quality and the quantity of altering our water in the settlement area.
I want to ask the Minister, are there increases to ongoing funding to know that this provision of the chapter will be honoured and respected and enforced if need be.
There has been about $4 million spent in the Sahtu since 2013 tied to baseline information, a lot of it tied to water in different areas, which is the information I’d be happy to share with the Member. We’ve taken over the Taiga lab from the federal government as part of devolution. That’s a $600,000 operation, and they provide a lot of critical scientific support. We have all the work done by Dr. Erin Kelly and her water staff in terms of spearheading and maintaining this community-based water monitoring. There has been an increase from the territorial government in work we’re doing not only in the Sahtu, but specifically to the Member’s question, in the Sahtu, to make sure that we can provide assurances to all the constituents and all the people that live in the Sahtu that they have some of the best water in the world coming down the river and flowing into the Mackenzie. It is a big issue. It is a big issue and we’re putting a lot of attention to this.
With the government and with the contributions that have been happening in the Sahtu with regard to the funding and the specific sites, I want to ask the Minister, given that Imperial Oil’s 10-year water application licence is going through, they are going to take out billions of litres of water, run it through their system, bring it back, pour billions more back into the Mackenzie River that will flow down towards Fort Good Hope and Tsiigehtchic and the other communities along the river system.
I want to ask the Minister, knowing this and knowing that 720,000 tonnes of hazardous material was dumped in Great Bear Lake when they had the mining operation, now we are talking about the new oil and gas exploration happening in the Sahtu with these hazardous waste materials or the hazardous waste materials that are on our lands, is there any type of discussion with this government here talking about a hazardous waste site in regard to monitoring just environmental hazardous sites such as the water and the land?
There has been some activity in terms of working to acquire lease land near the community of Norman Wells to put in a waste treatment site in anticipation of the need that may come with oil and gas development. It is a very big issue. The idea of having a proper waste treatment facility would be a great asset to the Sahtu and to the Northwest Territories. Most jurisdictions now are not very receptive to having wastewater and other substances imported into their jurisdictions for treatment, so there have been some initial discussions. It’s something I know that industry is interested in as well as is the government, ENR, ITI, Lands. It would all be seen as a next step in terms of being able to better manage the impacts of whatever oil and gas development is going to evolve in the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister inform the House and inform the people in the Sahtu as to when will the baseline studies of the water use or the water monitoring in the Sahtu, because there are concerns about groundwater consequences of the technology of hydraulic fracking.
There have been hundreds of thousands of dollars put into baseline work. We know that we need it on a regional basis, but clearly, we’re looking at starting near where the proposed activity, or potentially, will be. There has been work ongoing over the last couple of years, and that work is slated to continue as we work to get that critical information not only on baseline for water, groundwater, surface water but also for wildlife.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
