Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a project that was done in discussion in consultation with the Tlicho Government as well as the community of Whati. It depends on how you want to consider the sequencing. The transmission line will allow the community of Whati to go onto hydro. We know that we’re currently looking at expansion in a number of areas for hydro. We’re just concluding the Bluefish, for example, and we’re, through the energy plan as we’ve laid out to committee, going to be talking about the broadening of the grid and the connection of the grids going forward to allow us to move hydroelectricity throughout the grid. We recognize that there is an opportunity on the Lac La Martre River for a significant amount of power. The community was looking at a much smaller scale. It ended up, after basically years of work, is the plan is to move ahead initially with a transmission line.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley.
No further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditures, energy, not previously authorized, $439,000.
Agreed.
Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditures, tourism and parks, not previously authorized, $26,000.
Agreed.
Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditures, economic diversification and business support, not previously authorized, $72,000.
Agreed.
Industry, Tourism and Investment, operations expenditures, total department, not previously authorized, $574,000.
Agreed.
Page 16, Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, corporate management, not previously authorized, $304,000.
Agreed.
Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, environment, not previously authorized, negative $791,000.
Agreed.
Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, forest management, special warrants, $13.791 million. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wondered, I know we didn’t have a record number of fires, but I understand that a number of them were close to communities and were particularly intense. I believe the information that I saw was that we fought a very small percentage of forest fires out there. I’m wondering if the Minister can say what percentage of forest fires we fought this year and what the trend is over time. My impression is that it’s going down over time, that we’re choosing to fight fewer and there might be good reasons for that, but if that’s happening and we’re still having exceptional bills, it’s something we need to be aware of and thinking about.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t have that breakdown. Based on my recollection, we fought, on average, a normal number of fires. What we did have was an extremely dry season, a season where lightning started a month earlier, for example, a season that extended into September. We know that in just about every region there were major fires near communities requiring the mobilization of all our resources we had available, as well as importing resources from Alberta, Alaska, and any jurisdiction that we could get resources from, because every other jurisdiction in the country was facing the same challenge. There were major fires in Inuvik, Deline, Behchoko, Fort Smith, Enterprise and I believe Sandy Lake, to name the ones that come immediately to mind. And they were fairly significant in size requiring mobilization of all our resources and for a greater length of time than we anticipated. Thank you.
Thanks for the comments from the Minister. I would appreciate learning if the proportion of fires that we are fighting is changing over time. I imagine that varies a little bit with how many there are, absolutely, but I would be interested in that information if possible. That’s all I had. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Moving on, I have Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask a question here, as well, with regard to the special warrants. They are both rather large sums. They are the bulk of what we are looking at in this supplementary appropriation. The special warrants are done while the firefighting season is still on, and it’s an estimate of what it’s going to cost to deal with all the fires and what it’s going to cost us to get to the end of the season. Now that we are at the end of the season, I wonder if the Minister could advise whether or not there is an expectation that we will fully expend the $7.2 million and the $6.951 million that we’re asking for in the summer, approved by special warrant in the summer. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The final accounting is just being concluded. There is going to be some under expenditure. The money will be identified. Of course, it’s been voted by FMB that that money is coffered. That will be fully accounted for and returned to the treasury. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that remark. I guess my second question goes to procedure or process. The Minister just advised that through FMB, the actuals would be reported. I have wondered for a while now whether or not Regular Members see actual numbers of expenditures against what was approved by special warrant. Can I ask the Minister to answer that question? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We`ll go to Mr. Kalgutkar for that response.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we could certainly do that. If the Member will recall, we actually did a negative supp in the 2011-2012 year related to forest fire suppression costs for the same reason. We approved a special warrant and then we didn’t utilize all of it and then we did a negative supp in that fiscal year. I think at that time, we did report the actual cost. Thank you.
Thanks to Mr. Kalgutkar for that. No, I don’t remember that. Too many numbers too often, I guess. If the Minister could make available to Regular Members what’s been expended, that would be great. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Any comment, Minister Miltenberger?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, forest management, special warrants, $13.791 million.
Agreed.
Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, forest management, not previously authorized, $49,000.
Agreed.
Page 17, Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, wildlife, special warrants, not previously authorized, $4.451 million. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we heard today in the House with the Minister’s statement, severe loss, up to 50 percent of this herd, due to anthrax. This is the Mackenzie Bison Herd, one of the few herds of this threatened species, so this is a very serious loss. I’m wondering, just so that we’re learning along the way and making sure we are taking advantage of any opportunities to us, I wanted to ask, is there such thing as an inoculation program for anthrax that we might consider taking advantage of to help strengthen the herd and also help the population recovery. Thank you.
I understand, having talked to some of the biologists and such, that anthrax is a treatable condition if you capture it in time, but there’s no inoculation that I’m aware of. In cases with wild roaming herds, we are responding late in the day after we, through our aerial surveys in this case, happened to find some dead bison that turned out to have anthrax, so we were playing catch-up the whole summer trying to identify the outbreak in the animals after the outbreak had already occurred. The short answer would be, no, I don’t believe there’s an inoculation for anthrax.
I do realize the current situation and how that works and why we’re always behind. I guess I would just encourage the Minister to – obviously prevention would be much better – stay on top of any opportunities there.
My second question is, I know it’s a learning path on how to deal with these carcasses in an effective way. People, I think, have been amazed at the degree of this infection, this epidemic, and how it’s spread over quite a large area. Although, I guess, it was pretty defined in some areas as well. But, obviously, 50 percent of the herd; that says something.
In terms of the treatment of the carcasses, both in terms of costs which we’re dealing with today, and in terms of effectiveness which is an issue with respect to the spreading of the disease directly related to our costs, what have we learned this year, and will we be able to be more cost effective in the future as a result of our lessons this year?
In my discussions with one of our very skilled veterinarians that we have in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources when I was on-site doing a tour, it was pointed out to me that on almost every site they were tracking the type of fuel mixtures that they used. They tried some with dry wood and green wood and no coal, some with coal, some with coal and green wood. They tried just tarping some to see how natural decomposition would work in the heat. They were going to go back in the fall and test all the burn sites with all these carefully identified and catalogued burn sites to check the spore count to see the degree of success in eliminating the anthrax spores, and the lower the number, of course, the better.
We’ve had some discussion, as well, and some suggestions from the folks on the ground that work, really, like Trojans, in the incredible heat of summer disposing of the carcasses, suggestions similar to the suggestion you made, Mr. Chairman, for future outbreaks, coming up with a better way to dispose of carcasses that would see us possibly coming up with basically a big lid that you could put over a carcass once it’s burning, to capture all the heat and have improved incineration of the carcass and destruction of the anthrax spores. We’re looking at that as well.
From what I understand, as well, talking to the veterinarian, that this is a scientific issue of great concern across the land, so there’s going to be papers written on this. There will be a comparison with other scientists, other jurisdictions as they track what they do. This is an evolving science.
My final comment would be, I was told that in the old days they used to think it was best to dig a pit, put the animals in and dump in quick lime and that would dispose of the carcasses. Then they found out over time that in fact the spores thrive on the calcium and the quick lime ingredients. They went back to check some of these other sites where they had done that and there were literally cauldrons of anthrax spores as opposed to a site with no spores left. We’ve learned a lot from that case and we’re going to learn a lot from this one as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley.
That’s all I had. One last request, I guess. I want to thank the Minister for those comments, once again, and just ask if he would bring forward a report, a briefing on lessons learned, say by this spring or winter session, and how we’re better prepared to handle things when the next outbreak occurs. Mahsi.
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, wildlife, special warrants, $4.451 million.
Agreed.
Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, wildlife, not previously authorized, $172,000.
Agreed.
Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, land and water, not previously authorized, $21,000.
Agreed.
Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditures, total department, special warrants, $18.242 million.
