Thank you, Mr. Chair. The budget that is presented here in the amount of $319,000 is our operational budget for oversight and policy related to contaminated sites. The actual budget for cleaning up contaminated sites that we acquired as part of devolution is held in an environmental liabilities fund by the Department of Finance. It's not shown in our appropriation; it would be shown as an info item in the Department of Finance's budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Craig. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't have any further questions at this point.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Any further questions? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I would like to start with page 78, the $200,000 that is shown under waste reduction. I believe that is for the agricultural strategy, but can someone confirm what that funding is for? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. It is for the agricultural strategy implementation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister provide some detail, then, on what that work is going to be? Part of the issue here is there is this agricultural strategy implementation funding that is sprinkled across a whole bunch of departments, and I am not sure how it is being coordinated. What is this funding going to accomplish? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we work in partnership with ITI, and Health and Social Services, and Lands, but our $200,000 appropriation is for development of best practices, policies, and regulations to support animal health; gap analysis in review of current waste resource practices and needs of the NWT; complete compiled list of current farming organizations and survey their work management practice; contracted veterinarian services, animal health monitoring, animal care and welfare outreach policy and program work; and review, analysis, and development of a framework to manage agricultural waste. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that detail. I want to move back up to the contaminated sites and remediation line item, $319,000, and I believe one of our witnesses talked about how that is really for oversight and administration.
ENR is the GNWT partner on the Giant Mine remediation, and I know we are not responsible for paying for that, but the Giant Mine remediation is going to be the largest project ever undertaken in Yellowknife. I don't know what the cost figures are, because the federal government has not released anything recent, but it is going to be well over a billion dollars.
What is ENR doing, maybe working with ITI, to make sure that people here in the Northwest Territories are going to benefit from that remediation effort? Is there anything that ENR is doing on that front? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Dr. Dragon.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In terms of benefitting and working with the department of ITI, what we've looked at is having our staff have regular meetings with the Department of ITI to understand what are the potential opportunities, and that includes not only local employment, but the conversation that has happened over the last few months is looking at having local employment and providing opportunities.
We have also been working with ECE on looking at developing opportunities for local northern businesses that could be available that would be able to train Northerners to be able to participate in that operation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to hear that. I would like to get some more details at some point.
Under the devolution agreement, there are more than 700 contaminated sites that are identified. This is a project that is probably going to start in the next two or three years. Well, I shouldn't say that, but this is an opportunity for us to build capacity locally, to do a lot of the other work that is going to come from the 700 contaminated sites, and start to build the kind of knowledge economy that my colleague from Yellowknife North talked about as well, where we have some expertise in knowledge of environmental remediation. I know that there's another big project at Norman Wells that is going to require a lot of remediation as well.
Can the Minister commit to give us, not now, but in writing or through a presentation, a little bit more about what our government is doing to help build capacity around the issue of environmental remediation and how that is linked to the knowledge economy? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will commit to the Member and committee that we will pull some information together. I believe the contract for the management of that has been awarded, so we will work closely with them and see what opportunities we can take advantage of for some of the people in the Northwest Territories and the businesses to be a part of that project.
We will pull some information together, and then, at the wish of committee, we will come and make that presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, the company that got the contract is Parsons, which is an American company, unfortunately, but they have done work here before. In any event, I am not sure what their Aboriginal or northern hiring or contracting commitments were with the federal government who did the tendering process, but that would be interesting information to get.
I want to move on to the contaminated sites and remediation. I know one of the witnesses talked about how the money to actually do that work is in the Environment Fund, so can I just get a bit more of an explanation, then? So does ENR actually contract or carry out the remediation work or manage it in some way, or what is their role in these contaminated sites and remediation? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my understanding is that ENR does contract out the work to do the remediation on these on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.
Okay, thanks, Mr. Chair. I might have some other questions, but I do not think I am going to have enough time to get to that in this round, so I want to ask about the Climate Change Strategic Framework. We are supposed to be getting an action plan soon for that. Is there any money in this budget to carry out the action plan? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Dr. Dragon.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, so, with the Climate Change Strategic Framework, we are looking at releasing that at the end of April. In doing so, the next step of that is to develop an action plan that will be clear on the deliverables for the Climate Change Strategic Framework. As we roll that out with community consultation across the Northwest Territories and stakeholders, we will have a better idea of what it is going to cost to implement that action plan, and that is when we will be coming forward with those costs. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, and I recognize this is an area where the federal government should be providing some assistance, as well. Am I hearing, then, that the department is going to be bringing forward a supplementary appropriation to do this work? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that partially depends on what the federal government does as far as funding goes and then the release of our strategy. If we can have the numbers in place for the next business planning process, we will go through that. If there is a need for appropriation before that time, then standard practice is that the department goes to the FMB to request supplementary appropriation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Any further questions? Seeing none, I shall call this activity on page 78. Environment and Natural Resources, environment, operations expenditure summary, $4,290,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Agreed. Before pursuing on to the other half, the chair recognizes that supper is here, so we will take a break for supper at the call of the chair. Dr. Dragon and Ms. Craig, you are invited to join us.
---SHORT RECESS
We can call committee back to order and begin with the next activity, starting on page 82 and ending in 84. Forest management. Questions to this activity? Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, a couple of years ago, I think it was 2014-2015, those were those two back-to-back years where we had considerable forest fires. They were big fire years and they happened to take place the same time that we were having low water years. Unfortunately, over those couple of years, we did lose some assets. I know that we had some reviews take place, and I'm just wondering if the department or the Minister can confirm with us what the department is doing now as it relates to some of the recommendations that stem from those inspection or review reports, and are we putting appropriate funding and resources towards those recommendations to make sure that we're limiting the loss of assets in the future? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister McLeod?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the report that was done a few years ago, there were recommendations that were made. We've integrated a lot of those recommendations into how we do business as we go forward. We've been able to do that with the existing funding, and if there's a need to acquire additional funding to help us implement some of those, then ENR will come forward with the proper appropriation. I'm thinking ENR has done a good job in integrating those recommendations into the existing budget on how we deal with those as we go forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I respect that we had some inspections take place and we did these reviews, and they resulted in reports that we're now learning from and initiating. Did we at the end of the day reach out as a department, not through any inspectors, but as a department, did we reach out to any of the asset holders and gain any insight from them what they might have to offer as it relates to the experience that they had in losing their assets? If we have, is there anything that we had learned from talking to or listening to those stakeholders? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Dr. Dragon.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, following those incidents, we did have some public engagements where we talked to different folks who had suffered losses. In all those cases, we tried to follow up and ensure what we can learn from the situation. As we know, those fires during the 2014-2015, there were numerous fires. In terms of our ability and capacity to fight all the fires, we couldn't, but it was really done as an exercise where we were looking at based on where we had crews and equipment, the fires that we could fight; but yes, we did have public engagement sessions with various stakeholders. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that, and I also appreciate that we're going to put the proper resources towards hopefully preventing some loss of assets in the future. I know to some degree it's maybe impossible. With that said, let's move on to talk about our new water bomber fleet. Is there anything that the department can do to kind of inform us of how well the new water bomber fleet is working? I appreciate that we didn't have as big a season, thankfully. That's something to be thankful for, that we didn't have as big a fire season last year. How is the water bomber fleet working out? Are we sending our water bombers to other jurisdictions when they're in need of help, and have we sold off our old water bombers? What's the status on our water bomber situation for our government? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the new firefighting fleet that we have is getting rave reviews. They're very, very efficient, and they've done everything we expected them to do, which is good. The Member is absolutely correct. We're fortunate this year, we haven't had an opportunity to see how they really work but that's a good thing. The maintenance cost on these are practically nil for the next few years. As far as the old water bomber fleet, those have all been sold and the money is in the bank. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, this is all good news. During our years that we don't have as much firefighting to contain, do we ever send our water bomber fleet to other jurisdictions, or do we typically not do that? That's just a curiosity question. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and that is my final question. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister McLeod.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, well, first of all, we look after our own territory, but if it is not a busy fire season and if we have the resources, the answer is yes, we will look at letting other jurisdictions use them. I am assuming we get paid for that, but I will confirm. We do get paid for that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
