Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m going to first of all say to the Minister and the staff that there were a lot of really concerned people last year because of the fires that happened in the south part of the Northwest Territories and the situation that called for additional dollars and resources to be used in the North to fight the fires.
So, my first point and my first comment is the ability of having well-qualified firefighters prepared and ready for any situation that might be in a similar situation as last year. I want to ask the Minister if he’s looking at the firefighters training program this year. It’s quiet now, and we can have some qualified, certified, trained firefighters using the Aurora College campus as having firefighters training while it’s really cold outside. Do you know what I mean? So, you know, you have some qualified people in the community ready to go when they’re needed and called upon. I think we can use, through some agreement with Education, Culture and Employment, people who are on income support can go to these, you know, and learn. That’s what we want to do. We want to get them off income support, and maybe some of them want to, and maybe learn further as they learn about firefighter training. That’s something I wanted to mention to the Minister.
The other one, Mr. Chair, I wanted to mention to the Minister, also I heard it from the Minister of ITI, is that the Sahtu and the other communities have a really strong fur trapping program and, as a matter of fact, Mr. Ramsay has mentioned that the Asian countries are really keen on the northern furs and our people are also very keen on what the outside people are saying. I wanted to look at a program in the communities as an out-of-the-box concept as maybe implementing a trappers certificate program in the Northwest Territories. I know they do that in Saskatchewan and other areas. They could take a program and that may have many benefits to attending this program and you have whole bunch of good things that could happen with this trapper certificate program. You would be a certified trapper and I think that might be something that is worthwhile to look at again. Again, it’s a concept that could do a lot of good things for our people in the communities. You know, people can be a certified trapper with many benefits. So that’s something I want to ask the Minister to look at.
The point I want to make, also, is that especially in the Sahtu there’s a lot of young men and women who like to hunt. A lot of families take their children out to a spring hunt. Last year I understand close to 400 people were out during the spring hunt, the ceremonial hunt, and even during the winter seasons here. I want to ask if the department would be willing to look at a gun safety program in the schools as part of that safety for the young ones.
I do want to raise a couple of concerns I have with the waste management, especially – and it might be down on the list of waste management recyclables – the old vehicles we have in our dumps right now. I think that’s a good program, a long-term program. I think the Minister mentioned something about looking at this in the future and that was a couple of years ago, so this is now the future. So I want to see if there’s still an appetite to look at how to get rid of these old vehicles that are sitting in our dumps through a program. So that’s something that I want to ask the Minister about in my comments.
Mr. Chair, I wanted ask the Minister in regards to the trapping program for the kids. I just talked with an elder outside, from Deline, and he said that it’s good to have education within the schools and that, but you also need to have a strong educational program on the culture and on the land and using our own language in that program. I know kids get really excited when they go on these one or two day on-the-land programs, but it’s not long enough. They really get excited when an elder goes out with them and starts teaching about the land. I know it requires some coordination and some work from other departments, so I want to raise this with the Minister.
I wanted to raise some more concerns from the Sahtu leadership, specifically from the Renewable Resources Board they had on caribou, but I don’t have the information in front of me so I won’t be able to say very much. But the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board had some concerns on the caribou issue. I just want to let the Minister know that once I get the information, I will raise it with him on this one here.
I want to say to the Minister and his staff to continue to work hard on the transboundary agreements that we have with the other provincial governments. I’d certainly like to see some progress in that area.
They have really good staff up in our region. They work well with the people and the community. I noticed that when one of our ENR personnel has to go to Colville Lake and they have to either drive or fly to buy furs… Again, I’m going to make another request to see if we can put some type of personnel in Colville Lake, either a patrol person or someone who can look after the furs, because a staff member has to leave Norman Wells and has to drive. Do you know how long it takes to get to Colville Lake? Eight hours by truck. Maybe they need to look at adding an ROI in there because it’s valuable time taken away from the regional office. I just ask if that can be considered to monitor other issues and to help the community.
I want to leave it at that, Mr. Chair. I want to say that to the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to the firefighting issue, we started training Northerners very seriously last year, so we have at least two levels. We have an elite level trained to the national standard that can be exported if they have capacity as part of our agreement with all the provinces and territories. So if they need to go to Alberta or any other province, they can go just as they ship firefighters up here. They are trained to the national standard, the elite firefighting contingent. Then we have emergency firefighters and firefighters trained not quite to the same stringent standard but can still successfully operate in the environment in the Northwest Territories.
I’m going to the deputy to talk to a whole host of very specific issues here about the trapper training and the gun safety and your concerns about the Take a Kid Trapping Program and more evidence in our curriculum and our schools. When you are ready to talk about the Renewable Resources Board – I am assuming it’s the Bluenose-East – we’d be happy to have that discussion.
In the life of this government, we expect to be concluding just about all the transboundary agreements we had on our to-do list, which will be a huge, huge accomplishment. We are prepared to sit down with the folks in Colville Lake to talk about your suggestion of a renewable resources officer I even on a part-time basis to see what needs to be done not only with furs but other monitoring issues. Mr. Chairman, with your agreement, I would ask the deputy to speak to some of the specifics, fur trapping certification, issues that Mr. Yakeleya raised. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Deputy Minister Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. With regard to the training of harvesters, as I mentioned, come April 1st, working towards April 1st, we are doing a review of the programs and we want to figure out a plan going forward on some of the areas where there are potential gaps that the communities have been identifying in the past. The Member is right about the trapper certification program. Absolutely those are types of areas we want to look at.
You mentioned the gun safety program. We recently completed with our partners in the Northwest Territories, including the Aboriginal governments and stakeholders, et cetera, a hunter education program which has the firearms safety component in there which will allow youth and others to acquire their possession and acquisition licences. We want to link it to the traditional economy stuff, to the larger initiatives such as the partnerships, as you mentioned, opportunities where these types of things can be delivered.
Spring hunts you mentioned, but there are many other forums out there where we can collaborate with others. We have already started some engagement on a pilot project in the Northwest Territories, on-the-land funding collaborative. So that’s one area where we’ve started, but there are other areas that we want to build on going forward. The Take a Kid Trapping Program is a link to this as well. There is $312,000 coming over for that program. Again, we want to explore the Take a Kid Trapping Program.
On the caribou with the renewable resource boards, the numbers we had last spring from the reconnaissance survey were alarming for Bluenose-East and Bathurst herds. Through the process we started in August and ended recently, we’ve landed on an approach for the interim for this harvesting season. That included working with the renewable resources boards. Thank you.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Campbell. Minister Miltenberger.
I just noted I didn’t respond to one specific question with regard to waste management and old vehicles. The answer is still the same. It’s on our list and we are going to work our way down there. We have been focusing on getting a territory-wide electronic waste recycling program on the go as our next big initiative. So, once again, it’s a question of time and capacity. There are old vehicles. Mr. Hawkins mentioned tires. We’ve had, as well, the issue of thousands of 45-gallon drums that are littered across the landscape. We know there are a lot of things we need to get to and we do have that list, but unfortunately I am not able to give any kind of affirmative response on that particular question.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Committee, we are on general comments.
Detail.
Is committee prepared to go into detail?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, page 89 we will defer until after the activity detail. That being said, I will have you turn to page 90, revenue summary, information item. Any questions? Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just noticed our licences, rental and other fees, water use fees are the same as they were last year. The Minister has said those would be going up. I am just wondering the status of that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We’ll go to the director, Ms. Craig.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The budget is for the water use fees that the boards collect on behalf of the department for water licences. It’s just an estimate that we’re carrying through from what was used by the federal government prior to devolution.
Thank you, Ms. Craig. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that response. I see what’s happening is not in line with what’s been said is going to happen. I think the Water Strategy recognizes that we’re undervaluing our water. The Minister’s on record as saying we’ll be working to correct that situation. I guess I’m asking where we will see that and when we will see that reflected in this budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for finishing up, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The work is going to get done, and the Member is correct that this does need looking at. We spent the first many months now, over nine months since devolution, getting things up and running. We are looking at a whole host of things that need to get looked at, fees, mirror legislation hasn’t been raised in this House and all that work is underway and starting to manifest itself here in the coming year. Thank you.
I’ll leave it at that, other than noting that it’s 11 months. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I didn’t hear a question in there, so we’ll actually go to Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just really briefly under the timber permits and licences. I know it’s starting to be a concern here in my riding with people having to go to their renewable resource officers for timber permits for driftwood. I recall when this item came to the RRCs quite a while back here, that it was supposed to be just on a volunteer basis, but now it seems they’re turning this over to mandatory. You know, it’s more or less to see what volume of driftwood was taken just for needs was what they were telling us at the time. It’s starting to be an issue that now it’s mandatory for people to go and get the timber permits for driftwood which is all along the river. It’s not like it’s standing wood. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. We’ll go to the deputy minister, Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The free timber cutting permits are, again, used as a management tool to assess what fuel biomass in the Northwest Territories is being used by residents. It absolutely is not a mechanism to infringe on people’s right to gather fuel wood, including driftwood. Driftwood has always been part of free timber cutting permits. Again, it’s a management tool for us to use in planning purposes for not just the government but for our partners, as well, going forward on what’s being used for fuel wood in the Northwest Territories.
It is, no doubt, an area where we’ve been very, very flexible over the years. Our officers do carry them with them and work with the residents. Again, it’s to manage that resource. It’s to identify where people can harvest fuel wood for personal use so there are no conflicts with private landowners, leaseholders, et cetera, and we recognize that going forward we always want to manage the fuel wood that’s being used in the Northwest Territories.
Going forward the intent is to update our forest management legislation, and we’re hoping in the life of this government we will come forward with a legislative proposal. Again, we’ll undertake that exercise, hopefully in the life of the next government, in the same manner that we’ve done with the Wildlife Act, Species at Risk, et cetera, with those partners of ours having a major influence on how our legislation is crafted and we’ll get into areas such as free timber cutting permits, et cetera. But at this point it’s a management tool that we use to manage the use of the fuel wood in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Committee, we’re on page 90, revenue summary, information item.
Sorry, before we do that, I apologize, Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regards to the timber, I just wanted to make the observation, similar to wildlife or anything else that we do, is you can’t manage what you can’t count. So it’s a challenge in all areas. It’s a challenge, for example, with hunting and reporting. We’re working out ways we can get those numbers because it’s absolutely critical, as we see, when you look at managing any kind of resource like that. So, that’s the fundamental goal, not to infringe but on a conservation basis to be able to manage. You can’t manage what you can’t count. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Committee, again, page 90, revenue summary, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, page 91, active position summary, information item. Any questions? Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My first question is on… I note the division is responsible for regional land use planning and I know through our Aboriginal government partners we’ve got a lot of land use plans in place, Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, Sahtu, Tlicho, I believe even the Dehcho have done some work there. But there are two major areas, the North Slave and South Slave, where there hasn’t been much work done.
Has the Minister initiated processes there to get that work done? For example, this government is talking about a road to resources, Slave Geological Province highway. Where’s the land use plan that would put some context around a project like that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.
Mr. Chairman, that work has yet to be done and the Lands department is going to be picking up that coordination and lead in terms of pulling together the various pieces, working with all the other, once again, appropriate departments and will work at that context. The Member’s correct; there’s work done and the Dehcho Land Use Plan is quite a ways along. The two areas are the North Slave and South Slave with the NWT Metis as well as Akaitcho, or what’s there of the Akaitcho. Salt River is no longer part of that. But the Member’s correct; that work has yet to be done. Thank you.
I guess a couple of things. It sounds like the statement now is incorrect and needs to be updated. The first line on page 92, “responsible for regional land use plan,” I guess that would now be Lands that’s doing that with the participation of ENR. Maybe the Minister could just review that.
Second, I think the responsibility of the Minister is with regard to conservation of lands. How can this government be pursuing something like the Slave Geological Province highway without doing the conservation and planning work beforehand? Thank you.
I’ll take the Member’s advice and review the text to make sure that it’s accurate.
Mr. Chairman, at this point we are putting out that particular project, along with the section of highway, for example, on the Wrigley/Norman Wells, the potential road through the Tlicho, extensive generation work that needs to be done. As ideas, part of a plan, a vision of going forward and that should the borrowing limit be adjusted and allow us to make those investments, then we will be moving forward on whatever projects are going to be funded with all the detailed work that is necessary. At this point it’s been identified as a project that is worth considering, just as we considered looking at transmission lines initially. A good idea, but the cost is prohibitive. So, too, is the road from Tibbitt to Contwoyto, the North Slave Geologic Province. It’s of great interest to the people of Nunavut as well. Should we be in a position to pursue that, then we’ll follow the process to the letter. Thank you.
Mr. Bromley, we’re actually on page 91. You might be ahead of yourself a little bit on the conservation assessment monitoring. So we’ll just finish page 91 and then we can go back to you if you have more conservation questions.
Page 91, active position summary, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 93, conservation assessment monitoring. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The reason I see a difference here is because there are land use plans in place for the Mackenzie Valley Highway and we don’t have those for the area for the road that’s being discussed. As the Minister knows, those things take in the order from five to 20 years to do. To do it right, we need to get started yesterday in land use planning in this area.
On the establishment of protected areas and development of an ecological representation network, where are we at on ecological representation? I know what we’ve done on the cultural representation side, working with our Aboriginal government partners, and it has highlighted the need for ecological representation. Is that something the Minister can speak to off the top or provide an update on? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.
A lot of work has been done in this area and we’re in the process of getting a document ready to bring to Cabinet and then on to committee that will show all the work that’s been done across the Northwest Territories. In terms of the ecological representative areas and the mapping and inventory that’s done, I would ask the deputy, Mr. Chairman, with your approval, to add a little bit further to that, if he would. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Deputy Minister Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ecological representative network plan that is in draft form at this point is part of the overall approach to managing land in the Northwest Territories. It falls under the umbrella of the Land Use Sustainability Framework identified here as a tool for land management in the Northwest Territories. It’s also a part of an action plan that we will be bringing forward here in the near future to address the existing candidate areas that are out there in the Northwest Territories that need to be finalized. It’s part of the overall land management process that’s being undertaken over the next while. The plan is not that far away from being a public document. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Bromley.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that information. I will look forward to that.
My last question is: Have we advanced any new conservation areas under the Territorial Parks Act in the last two or three years? Where are we headed with that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Not that I recollect. We are currently at work with the folks in Lutselk’e on Thaidene Nene. We are looking at northern tools, our first big initiative post-devolution. We also have the five candidate areas that are there that have been waiting for us to put our attention to them post-devolution that were identified through the Protected Areas Strategy, but there haven’t been any other specific conservation areas. I will ask the deputy if he wants to add anything further in case I may have inadvertently misspoken.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Deputy Minister Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The process over the last year, of course, we’ve paused on some of the existing candidate areas that are close to completion here in the Northwest Territories. I don’t think my Minister has missed too much there. We’re doing the exercise with Thaidene Nene here. That’s going to set the context again for northern approach to identifying these protected areas. We do have the Parks Act and we have tools there. We have work to do in some of those areas in building things like management regimes, regulations, et cetera. Again, the process with Thaidene Nene being undertaken at this point is going to inform the processes, including the action plan that I just mentioned here, on the approach that the existing candidate areas that are out there at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Bromley.
Mr. Chair, thanks for that update. I’m just getting a little concerned that this pause on protected areas could last for years upon devolution. I’m just finding there are all kinds of costs to devolution that weren’t discussed before. Here’s another one.
Is the Minister in touch with Lutselk’e people on the northern tools and are they at least privy to the Minister’s thinking on this more than those few words? Are they looking at northern tools?
