Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement I talked about the Transboundary Water Agreements. I would like to ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources questions. My first question is: I know that the GNWT has signed bilateral agreements with all affected jurisdictions, with the exception of Saskatchewan. Can the Minister provide us with a timeline of when this bilateral agreement may be signed? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Negotiations towards the establishment of a bilateral water agreement currently are under way with Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is conducting a legal review of the intention document, and that review is ongoing. Negotiations will continue once that review is complete. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Under the master agreement, environment Ministers from their respective jurisdictions are not obligated to present reports from the Mackenzie River Basin Board. My question is: would our Minister commit to providing this House regular updates as the work is done within the board?
The work of the board is to provide a state of aquatic environment report every five years, and they get the funding to do that work. My understanding is that the next version of the report is coming out in 2020. I would have to follow up to see if there are yearly reports that are put out. I was on the board's website to see if there was an opportunity to find a yearly update, but I can look at that. The report is due in 2020.
Considering the master agreement has not received any funding increase since it was created in 1997, would the Minister commit to advocating for a funding increase?
I believe that there is adequate funding for the Mackenzie River Basin Board, and I think Members would expect me to say nothing less. They have $280,000 in annual contributions from all parties, $40,000 from the jurisdictions, and $8,000 from Canada. If they feel that there is a need for more resources, I am sure they will approach the appropriate ministers in the jurisdictions to make a case for more funding. Again, that is another one that I would have to follow up on, and I have not seen any requests from board representatives for our department to increase the funding.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if there are monitoring requirements. I am referring to maybe something a little technical, the monitoring requirements of the water within the Mackenzie River basin.
I believe we are always monitoring the quality of the water, especially with some of the projects that are going on in the southern jurisdictions. We have the Mackenzie data stream project, and I believe we have monitoring stations in almost 22 communities, as far as the work of the Northwest Territories. I would encourage Members to go on I believe there is a website, the Mackenzie data stream website. We have a lot of monitoring stations on the Mackenzie, down the valley. As they propose to do some work in the southern jurisdictions, I think the importance of the water monitoring on our part of the border is critically important so that we can see if there is any effect of some of the projects that they are doing in the southern jurisdiction. If we feel there is, then we need to raise those with the appropriate ministers in the southern jurisdictions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
