Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's with Finance.
Thank you, Ms. Kelly. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I'll save up some questions then for the Finance Minister then. These guys are off the hook for now. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Seeing no other questions, I will call this page again. Environment, operations expenditure summary, activity total $4,079,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Moving on to forest management division. Once again, we will wait to discuss page 95 and we will start on the detail on page 96: forest management, grants, contributions and transfers. Any comments or questions? Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just under fire damage compensation I see there's a $100,000 there. How would that be… Like, say somebody's place burned down by a forest fire, how much would each individual receive under this program and how is it calculated as to how much they will receive? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Under that program, the maximum a harvester can receive is $35,000 and it's broken down into a number of areas, one being the replacement of potential loss of their cabins. Another one for relocation costs to harvesting in new areas. The second one is for things like opening up trails and access, I guess, to harvesting areas. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, $100,000, let's say five, six people lost their cabins, you know, it's going to be underfunded this pot here. A good example is all the cabins that were burned down around Yellowknife, for example, the last couple of years and, you know, around Providence. You know, out through this area here. You know, is that $100,000 adequate for this program? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the $100,000 in some years is not an adequate amount. As you notice on the page in the 14-15 actuals, there it's much higher than the $100,000. In those instances, if the department cannot find the funding from within then we would come back for an additional supp. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, I'm surprised to see that there's no money this year in the community protection research. You know, that sort of money is, you know, for firebreaks and whatnot, anything that'll... Back burning, that's something I'd like to see as a practice by some of the communities. You know, why is there no money in there for this?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding with that money, it's been rolled into the following two projects: fire science and fire research projects. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Blake.
Well, that sounds good. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Next, I have Mr. McNeely.
On the same page, page 96, Mr. Chair, just clarification on the $75,000 designated for wildfire risk and management plans. Is the definition of this program for firebreaks around communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The $75,000 is for communities to access to do mitigation work for wildfire. This is in our fund that we use to, of course, leverage partnerships with the community governments, with MACA there’s a collaborative effort to implement the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. This amount we've been using in the past to provide somewhat funding in particular to some of the most vulnerable communities and the smaller communities to do wildfire mitigation work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Which program is designated for firebreaks around communities, small communities?
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The dollars identified there is the program that is designated for the community protection efforts such as fire or fuel breaks. We also have our staff in the regions and as well as headquarters that provide technical expertise to the communities and MACA, et cetera, for implementing this stuff. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. McNeely.
I'll ask again, which program is designated for firebreaks?
Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you want to go to program level, sorry, I misunderstood the question, in forest management division it will be the fire suppression program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. McNeely, are you good?
Yes.
All right. Comments and questions for page 96. Mr. Thompson again.
Sorry. Just to clarify. It's in another section for firebreaks around the community? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have a number of programs in forest management division similar to other activities. For example, we have the suppression program, the pre-suppression. Pre-suppression is in preparation of fire events, so yes, that's the program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this wildfire risk management plan that what we're talking about here, or is there another section within this department? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Campbell.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Under page 95 under the programs, under forest management division there, yes, it would fall under the program management pre-suppression, that program, the Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Maybe we can discuss that when we turn back to page 95.
Would that be acceptable Mr. Thompson. Anything further on page 96? Nothing further? No? Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to get a status report. I know we're on the cusp of enhancing the biomass industry by establishing an industry activity in the South Slave area. I just wanted to see if the Minister could provide us an update in terms of the progress towards establishing a wood pellet plant, in terms of his role in assisting communities to advance that proposed business initiative and how communities have been involved this far. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Schumann. Or sorry, Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The forest industry initiative is at a point right now where we do have the forest management agreements in place with those communities. There's a number of steps there as well. At this point the community of Fort Providence, that business entity has a number of things in place. They've done a lot of the forest planning work to date. They've secured their land use permit. The proponents themselves have secured the land tenure for the site for the pellet plant and ENR is working with the community in attempting to assist the community and the proponent to reaching the establishment of a fibre agreement. Once the fibre agreement is in place then the other plans kick in, such as the harvesting, et cetera. We are planning on going into that community within the next two weeks to follow up at their request to meet with us. Again, the intent there is to continue to try to advance this file so that we end up in agreement between the community entity and the pellet mill operator there to come to that agreement with the fibre agreement. That's where it's currently at. Again, we're hoping that in the next short while there that these fibre agreements with not just Fort Providence, but with Fort Resolution here can be resolved. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. McNeely. Or sorry, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, thank you. I'd like to thank the deputy for providing an update. I know some communities have done some inventory analysis in terms of the potential for forest products within their territory, and whether the forest fires from the past two years have negated or significantly impacted their inventory in terms of, you know, working with the proponent and the community and whether that's become a factor or not. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Over the last few seasons, we've had quite severe fire seasons and it's burned a lot of the landscape. There has been impact to some of our inventoried areas. We have approximately one-sixth of our total forested landscape in the Northwest Territories inventoried, so yes, some of the fires impacted those inventories. For these two particular initiatives with the community of Fort Resolution and Fort Providence, those areas identified with the Forest Management Agreement so have not been impacted by forest fires. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
